Syrian reports

On May 10, at a meeting with military leaders and the leadership of the defense industry, Vladimir Putin spoke about the problems identified during the operation in Syria. The question is what counts as a problem.

Since last October, the official Russian media have been reporting how Russian troops, who came to the aid of Bashar al-Assad on an exclusively legal basis, are moving forward in measured steps - from victory to victory. Homs and Hama have already been taken, Palmyra has already been liberated, Aleppo has already been besieged, and from day to day it will be either ours or Assad. The enemy is running and will soon be completely broken.

And then, like a bolt from the blue, Vladimir Putin, the blacksmith of the Syrian victory, declares: the operation in Syria has revealed certain problems. Literally the next day, Dmitry Peskov rushed to explain: we are talking exclusively about problems with new military equipment. A day later, domestic media already quoted the helicopter builder Andrei Shibitov: the combat use of machines revealed a number of shortcomings that need to be eliminated.

News about "technical flaws" obscured another - that the body of Russian serviceman Anton Erygin, who was killed on May 7 near Palmyra by a sniper, was delivered to Voronezh. Under the same Palmyra, from which the enemy seemed to have been knocked out back in March and in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bwhich, it turns out, battles are still going on. Apparently, not entirely modified domestic helicopters did not allow Palmyra to be recaptured properly. But in any case, it is clear that in addition to technical ones, a number of more serious problems have arisen in Syria - news from alternative sources does not look at all as bravura as Russian officialdom.

For example, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports that the Islamic State * group, as a result of an unexpected counterattack, cut the key road between Palmyra and Homs near the Tayfur military airport. “This was part of the largest ISIS* offensive since the Syrian army, supported by the Russians, managed to recapture Palmyra on March 27,” the SIHR summary reads. “ISIS * surrounded Palmyra from all sides, with the exception of approaches from the southwest, and is located 10 km from the city.”

And here's some more news. According to the Iranian website Jam News, on May 6, Iranian volunteers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), fighting on the side of Assad, left the village of Khan Tuman, located on the strategically important Aleppo-Damascus highway, with battles. The defeat at Khan Tuman is considered the most serious defeat of the pro-Assad forces during the entire period of the Syrian war: more than 80 fighters were killed - both Iranians and Afghans from the Fatimiyun division and the Lebanese Hezbollah.

In Aleppo itself, the Jabhat al-Nusra group has sharply intensified. Its fighters are attacking the northern quarters of the city, while its southern part has long been under the control of Assad's opponents.

In the province of Latakia, a stronghold of Bashar al-Assad, where one of the Russian military bases is located, the militants also went on the offensive, attacking the village of Ikko.

In the province of Hama, militants captured the town of Zara, in the province of Idlib - the town of Hvein.

So the problems in Syria are by no means limited to the shortcomings of the new Russian combat helicopters, and apparently, the Russian General Staff understands this.

In mid-March, Vladimir Putin ordered the withdrawal of the main forces from Syria, announcing that the tasks had been completed. However, having lost the support of Russian aviation, the troops fighting on the side of Assad were unable to consolidate their earlier success. And now the question arose of returning the Russian contingent to Syria in full. And this is a problem of a different order.

* "Islamic State" (IG, ISIS, ISIS) is a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation.

** Jabhat al-Nusra is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.