Putin: Wecan be back in Syria in hours
President Vladimir Putin praised his military for its £340 million (NZ$720m) bombing campaign in Syria, saying it had ‘‘opened a road to peace’’, while warning that Russian forces could return within hours.
This week Putin announced a withdrawal of most of Russia’s servicemen and aircraft from Syria, but stressed that Russia would maintain a military presence the country.
Speaking to military leaders in the Kremlin, he said: ‘‘If there’s a need Russia literally within several hours can ramp up its presence in the region to the size required for the unfolding situation and use the whole arsenal of possibilities we have at our disposal.
‘‘We would not want to do that, a military escalation is not our choice,’’ he added during a ceremony in which he gave state awards to 16 men and one woman for their part in the campaign.
‘‘And that’s why we put our hopes in the common sense of all parties, in the commitment to the peace process of both the Syrian authorities and the opposition.’’
Putin, who is commander in chief of the armed forces, said the main aim of the campaign had been to ‘‘stop the horrible global evil, to prevent terrorism from spreading into Russia’’.
‘‘Our country has demonstrated its indisputable leadership, will and responsibility.’’ he said.
Russian forces remaining in Syria were ‘‘enough to attain the goals set them’’, he added. ‘‘We will continue to provide assistance to the Syrian army and the authorities in fighting so-called Islamic State, Nusra Front, and other terrorist groups designated as such by the UN Security Council. The Syrian army has seized the initiative and continues to purge its soil of terrorist gangs.’’
Western countries have accused Russia of causing large numbers of civilian casualties and of concentrating strikes on mainstream rebels fighting Assad rather than on Isis jihadists. Another round of peace talks began in Geneva this week.
The Kremlin has not said what size contingent will stay behind in Syria but a military source said Russia would keep some air defence units, about 10 helicopters, several T-90 tanks and armoured personnel carriers, four Su-35 multi-role fighters and a few Su30SM fighter jets.
Russia is thought to have stationed about 2400 military personnel in Syria and up to 48 jets were thought to be in use. Russia’s defence minister has said 9000 sorties were flown since the start of the campaign last September.
The withdrawal began on
‘‘If there’s a need Russia literally within several hours can ramp up its presence in the region to the size required for the unfolding situation and use the whole arsenal of possibilities we have at our disposal.’’
President Vladimir Putin
Tuesday with Su-34 jets flying back to Russia. Three Su-24M bombers arrived at an airbase in the Urals yesterday and Viktor Bondarev, commander of the Russian air force, said the pullback would be completed in two or three days.
The United States has expressed doubts at the scale of the withdrawal. Putin said on Tuesday that it would be the ‘‘main part’’ of Russia’s military contingent. However, he emphasised yesterday that Moscow would continue providing money and arms to Assad, as well as ‘‘direct support, I mean, the use of our [air] force and strike and fighter aviation’’.
Earlier British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond compared praise for the Russian leader’s withdrawal to a man being commended for no longer beating his wife.
Putin has admitted he intervened in Syria to prop up the ailing regime of Bashar al-Assad, a longtime ally in the region. The Kremlin was also keen to project itself as an equal to the US on the world stage.
Analysts suggest Moscow decided to wind down its Syria campaign after successfully reasserting its role as a great power and bolstering Assad’s forces, which gained new territory with the backing of Russian air raids, often at the expense of Western-backed rebels.
Putin paid tribute to four Russian servicemen who died in Syria, whose widows were in the audience at the Georgiyevsky Hall, where the ceremony took place.
The president said the campaign costs had been paid from funds reassigned from military exercises and combat training.
Isis, through its media wing, Aamaq News Agency, claimed a Russian military adviser had been ‘‘killed during clashes with the group west of Palmyra in Homs countryside’’. It said Isis forces recovered the body of the serviceman, but the report could not be confirmed.
US Secretary of State John Kerry is due to meet Putin in Moscow next week to discuss Syria, where a partial ceasefire has been in place since February 27.
Yesterday the US accused Isis of committing genocide against ethnic and religious minority groups in Iraq and Syria.
Kerry said the state department had determined Isis to be ‘‘responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control including Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims’’.
He added that in 2014 the terrorist group trapped members of the Yazidi religious minority who lived in Isis-controlled areas, killing or enslaving thousands, ‘‘selling them at auction, raping them at will and destroying the communities in which they had lived for countless generations’’.
The group also executed Christians ‘‘solely for their faith’’ and forced women and girls into slavery, he said.
It was only the second time that a US administration has designated a mass killing a genocide. Washington has often shied away from the label because the 1948 United Nations genocide convention compels countries to punish and prevent such acts.