Russian intervention in the Syrian civil war
On 30 September 2015, Russia launched a military intervention in Syria after a request by the government of Bashar al-Assad for military support in its fight against the Syrian opposition and Islamic State (IS) in the Syrian civil war.[155][156] The intervention was kick-started by extensive air strikes across Syria, focused on attacking opposition strongholds of the Free Syrian Army along with the rebel coalition of the Revolutionary Command Council and Sunni militant groups under the Army of Conquest coalition. In line with Syrian government propaganda which denounces all armed resistance to its rule as "terrorism"; Syrian military chief Ali Abdullah Ayoub depicted Russian airstrikes as facilitating their campaign against terrorism.[157][158][159] Russian special operations forces, military advisors and private military contractors like the Wagner Group were also sent to Syria to support the Assad regime, which was on the verge of collapse.[160][161] Prior to the intervention, Russian involvement had been heavily invested in providing Assad with diplomatic cover and propping up the Syrian Armed Forces with billions of dollars of arms and equipment.[162] In December 2017, the Russian government announced that its troops would be deployed to Syria permanently.[163]
At the onset of the intervention, the Syrian government controlled just around 26% of Syrian territories.[164] Although Russia initially portrayed its intervention as a "war against terrorism" solely focused on targeting the Islamic State,[156][165] Russia's scorched-earth strategy has been focused on razing civilian areas and Syrian opposition strongholds opposed to IS and Al-Qaeda.[b][166] Weeks after the start of the operations, Russian officials disclosed Vladimir Putin's chief objective of maintaining the allied Ba'athist government in Damascus and capture territories from American-backed Free Syrian militias, with a broader geo-political objective of rolling back U.S. influence.[167] In a televised interview in October 2015, Russian president Vladimir Putin said that the military operation had been thoroughly prepared in advance. He defined Russia's goal in Syria as "stabilising the legitimate power in Syria and creating the conditions for political compromise".[168] In 2016 alone, more than 80% of Russian aerial attacks targeted opposition militias fighting the Islamic State.[165] Despite Russia's extensive air support that focused on bombing opposition strongholds, Assad regime's actual control of territories reduced from 26% in 2015 to 17% in early 2017, the lowest ever.[164]
In early January 2017, Chief of General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov said that the Russian Air Force (RuAF) had carried out 19,160 combat missions and delivered 71,000 strikes on "the infrastructure of terrorists".[169] The intervention only began producing concrete gains for the Assad government from 2017; after the recapture of Aleppo in December 2016. These included the recaptures of Palmyra and Deir ez-Zor from the Islamic State in 2017, fall of Daraa and collapse of the Southern Front during the 2018 Southern Syria offensive; followed by the complete seizure of M5 Motorway during the North-Western Syria offensive.[170][171][172] For Russia, the intervention has swelled its position in the great-power competition with the United States, guaranteed access to the Eastern Mediterranean, and bolstered its capacity to conduct military operations across the wider region, such as the Red Sea and Libya.[161]
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) and Violations Documentation Centre (VDC) stated that from its inception in September 2015 until the end of February 2016, Russian air strikes killed at least 2,000 civilians. SNHR report stated that civilian deaths from the Russian offensive had exceeded those caused by the Islamic State and the Syrian Army since Russian operations began.[173][174] The UK-based pro-opposition[175][176] Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) issued a slightly lower estimate: at least 1,700 civilians, including more than 200 children.[173] Weapons used included unguided bombs, cluster bombs, incendiaries similar to white phosphorus and thermobaric weapons.[177][178][179] By the end of April 2018, the SOHR documented that Russian bombings directly killed more than 7,700 civilians, about a quarter of them children, apart from 4,749 opposition fighters and 4,893 IS fighters.[180] The Russian campaign has been criticised by numerous international bodies for indiscriminate aerial bombings across Syria that target schools and civilian infrastructures and carpet bombing of cities like Aleppo. The findings of BMJ Global Health and a UN investigation report published in 2020 revealed that the RuAF also "weaponized health-care" through its hospital bombardment campaigns; by pursuing a deliberate policy of bombing ambulances, clinical facilities, hospitals and all medical infrastructure.[c]
The intervention polarized governments along predictable lines. Countries with close ties to Russia either voiced support or stayed neutral, while reactions by governments close to the US were critical. Western governments and other US allies strongly denounced Russia for its role in the war and its complicity with the Syrian regime's war crimes. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International stated that Russia is committing war crimes and deliberately targeting civilians.[181][182] The United States government condemned the intervention and imposed economic sanctions against Russia for supporting the Syrian government.[183] Officials at the United Nations condemned the Russian intervention and stated that Russia was committing war crimes.[184] Russian authorities dismissed this denunciation, including accusations of "barbarism", labeling them as false and politically motivated,[185] thereby eliciting further condemnation from governments that support the rebel groups.[184]
Anti-war sentiment[edit]
Russian authorities have made efforts to avoid a repeat of the humiliating experience of Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. Casualty figures of Russian troops and PMCs have been either undercounted officially or undisclosed. Fearing the implications of a protracted war in Syria, Russian government has been keen to regularly issue declarations of victory, in order to provide the idea that the war is about to end. Despite continued stationing of Russian boots on the ground, Putin has twice declared "the withdrawal of Russian troops", in 2016 and 2017. With the military intervention being extended indefinitely as a protracted conflict, war weariness has been rising in the Russian society. A 2019 poll conducted by Levada Center revealed that at least 55% of Russian citizens demand the end of all military operations in Syria; up from 49% in 2017.[189]
