Large columns of Russian forces and military vehicles were seen withdrawing from southern Syria on Friday, toward their primary base in the coastal city of Latakia.
Significant Russian military convoys were seen on the Damascus-Homs highway near Shinshar village heading north.
The military equipment had been previously stationed in southern regions such as Daraa and Damascus.
On Thursday, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Russian forces were also leaving bases in Ain Issa and Tel Al-Samn in the Al-Raqqah countryside.
Some Syrians gave Russian forces the finger as the columns moved towards Latakia, but there have been no reports of attacks or violence.
The Russian troop movement comes amid questions about whether Moscow will be able to retain bases in Syria that are seen as strategically significant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian forces currently still control Hmeimim airbase in Latakia and nearby Tartus Naval base, which are seen as significant strategic assets in Russia’s attempts to project force in the middle east, Mediterranean and Africa.
Yet it’s not known whether Russia will be able to keep control of those bases in Syria as former rebels consolidate power.
Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov says his government is in direct contact with talks Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), the group primarily responsible for Assad’s fall, about the enduring status of Russia’s military bases.
He told Interfax that the talks were “proceeding in constructive fashion.”
“(Russian forces) were there at the Syrians’ request with the aim of fighting terrorists from the Islamic State. I am proceeding on the basis of the notion that everyone agrees that the fight against terrorism, and what remains of IS, is not over,” Bogdanov said.
Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies on Friday show what appear to be cargo planes at Hmeimim airbase with their nose cones opened to receive heavy equipment.
The images also appear to show a Ka-52 attack helicopter being dismantled, likely for transport, as well as parts of an S-400 air defense unit similarly being prepared.
Earlier this week, all Russian naval ships departed the Syrian port of Tartus, according to a US official.
Thousands of Syrians gathered in Damascus’ main square and a historic mosque for the first Muslim Friday prayers since former President Bashar Assad was overthrown, a major symbolic moment for the country’s dramatic change of power.
The former rebels are now working to establish security and start a political transition after seizing the capital on Sunday, which has included a petition to the UN asking for relief from Israeli attacks on Syria.
Syria’s interim government is calling on the UN Security Council to take action to compel Israel to immediately stop its attacks, which have destroyed military material that the interim government says is a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.
The interim government has also complained about Israel’s territorial incursions and its occupation of Syrian territory.
In identical letters to the council and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres obtained Friday by The Associated Press, Syria’s UN Ambassador Koussay Aldahhak said he was acting “on instructions from my government” in making the demands.
It appeared to be the first letter to the UN from Syria’s new interim government.
“At a time when the Syrian Arab Republic is witnessing a new phase in its history in which its people aspire to establish a state of freedom, equality and the rule of law and to achieve their hopes for prosperity and stability, the Israeli occupation army has penetrated additional areas of Syrian territory in Mount Hermon and Quneitra Governorate,” ambassador Aldahhak wrote.
Israel still controls the Golan Heights that it captured from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war.
The Disengagement Agreement ending the 1973 war between Israel and Syria established a demilitarized buffer zone between the two countries, monitored by a UN peacekeeping force known as UNDOF.
In a letter to the Security Council circulated Friday, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said his country had taken “limited and temporary measures,” deploying troops temporarily in the separation area “to prevent armed groups from threatening Israeli territory.”
Meanwhile Russian wheat supplies to Syria have been suspended, reportedly because of uncertainty about the new government and payment delays, Russian and Syrian sources said on Friday, while two vessels carrying Russian wheat for Syria did not reach their destinations.
Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, supplied wheat to Syria through complex financial and logistical arrangements, circumventing western sanctions imposed on both Syria and Russia.
Ukraine are ready to start exporting food to Syria if the middle eastern country needs such supplies, stated Minister of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine Vitaliy Koval in a commentary to Reuters.
“Where it is difficult, we have to be there with our food. We are open to supplying our food and if Syria needs food – then we are there,” Koval said.
Since the fall of Damascus it has been revealed that Ukraine gave HTS military support for their lighting offensive against the Assad regime.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Ukraine sent 150 first-person-view drones and 20 drone operators to Idlib about a month ago, with The New York Times also reporting military coordination between Ukraine and HTS.
With wires
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