ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE: AFP PHOTO / RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY / Vadim Grishankin
On October 20th, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reveaked that Russian Aerospace Defense Forces had carried out more than 40,000 flights, including 21,000 nighttime ones over the course of the operation in Syria. These have resulted in approximately 122,000 strikes on terrorist facilities.
Furthermore, about 87,500 terrorists were eliminated and over 1,411 settlements were liberated as a result of the operations.
More than 2,500 settlements have joined the reconciliation process as a result of the Russian reconciliation center’s efforts. According to Shoigu special attention is being paid to resolving humanitarian issues.
Currently, the province of Idlib, which is mostly controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) and its allies, is the main area of tensions in the war-torn country. Turkey, Russia, Iran and the Damascus government have contributed significant efforts to de-escalate the situation there and to force the radical part of militants to separate from the Turkish-backed “moderates”. Nonetheless, this has not resulted in any major success yet. Thus, there are still significant chances of the escalation.
