Moscow has condemned "foreign powers" that it says are seeking to escalate violence in Syria, despite reports from Ukrainian military intelligence that Russia plans to send mercenaries to support faltering troops allied to Damascus, the Guardian reports.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova blamed foreign actors for fueling the recent major rebel offensive after Islamist militants led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group seized control of the city of Aleppo last weekend in a shocking advance.
Zakharova emphasized Moscow's support for Damascus' counteroffensive, despite reports that Russia is withdrawing ships from its naval base in Tartus. Militant forces led by HTS are engaged in fierce clashes with the Syrian army about fifty miles from the provincial capital of Hama.
The Defense Ministry in Damascus said large reinforcements had been sent to the city of Hama to bolster troops on the front lines, as rebels claim to be increasingly taking control of villages in the northwestern part of Hama province, while another front is moving south towards Hama.
Fighting continued in eastern Syria, where forces loyal to Damascus, backed by Iranian and Iranian-backed militias, are fighting Arab rebel militias from the city of Deir Ezzor. The Pentagon said it destroyed rocket launchers, a tank and mortars that posed a "clear and imminent threat" to US and allied forces near the Euphrates River, the second such preemptive strike in the area in less than seven days.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has relied heavily on support from Moscow and Tehran, as well as Iranian militias from Iraq, to maintain control of the divided country, which quickly turned into a proxy war after a popular uprising against his rule in 2011.
The rebels' sudden territorial incursion in the northwest, which Zakharova described as a "brazen act," represented the biggest challenge to Assad's rule in recent years and the first time in more than a decade of civil war that the entire city of Aleppo is reportedly under full opposition control.
Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) said planned rotations of Russian troops from Syria had been suspended, while morale among Russian military personnel in Syria was low due to a sudden rebel advance. The Syrian army and Russian reinforcements suffered "significant losses", including what was described as a "chaotic" retreat from their positions, leaving behind military equipment and weapons.
Moscow will bolster its forces in Syria using private military companies, which are expected to arrive in the country, according to HUR. The force is expected to be drawn from Russia's Africa Corps, a mercenary unit that is a rebranded version of the state-funded militia known as the Wagner Group.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is scheduled to meet with his counterparts from Iran and Turkey in Qatar in the coming days for urgent consultations on Syria. Ankara has backed rebel groups in northwest Syria, while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Russian leader Vladimir Putin in a phone call that Damascus should start political consultations to end the civil war.
Turkey is "doing everything it can to establish peace in Syria," Erdogan added.
According to the Kremlin report, Putin "stressed the urgent need" to end the rebellion, advocating that Ankara play a role in what he called Damascus' efforts to "restore stability and constitutional order throughout the country."
The head of Syria's civil defense, known as the White Helmets, told the UN Security Council that Russian airstrikes on the rebel enclave of Idlib earlier this week knocked out four hospitals in the city.
"As military control on the ground shifted, brutal attacks by the Syrian regime, Russia and Iranian cross-border militias against civilians escalated, especially in areas outside their control in northwestern Syria," he said.
The White Helmets responded to 275 attacks that killed 100 civilians and wounded 360 people, he added.
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