Russian troops are leaving the Qamishli airbase, a key facility in northeastern Syria. Why is Moscow curtailing its presence after five years?

Russia has begun withdrawing troops from Qamishli airfield in northeastern Syria, where Russian units have been stationed since 2019, Reuters reported on January 26, citing five sources. According to the agency, a gradual evacuation began last week: part of the personnel is planned to be transferred to the Khmeimim air base in western Syria, the other is to be returned to Russia. A source in the Syrian security services reported that in recent days Russian military equipment and heavy weapons have been sent from Qamishli to Khmeimim. On January 26, a Reuters journalist himself saw Russian flags and two planes with Russian markings at the Qamishli airport signs. Information about the curtailment of the Russian presence is also confirmed by the Kurdish agency Kurdistan24 and the publication Al-Monitor. There were no official comments from the Russian Ministry of Defense at the time of publication.

What does the abandoned base look like?

Observations by journalists also indicate the departure of the Russian military from the base in Qamishli. Thus, Associated Press correspondents visited one of the Russian bases near the airport and found that the facility was already guarded by fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a pro-Kurdish alliance of armed forces in the northeast of the country. SDS members claim that the Russian military has been removing equipment over the past few days.

Military housing appears largely empty, according to the AP. Only a few items were left behind, including sports equipment, protein packs and some clothing. One of the SDF fighters told the agency that the evacuation began five to six days ago and the equipment was taken out by cargo plane. However, according to him, it is unclear whether it was sent to Russia or to the Khmeimim airbase. He also emphasized that the Russian presence in Qamishli has not yet been completely stopped and is being phased out gradually.

Similar footage was published by Al-Monitor. His journalist filmed the video, allegedly from the territory of the abandoned Russian base in Qamishli, from where, according to her, the military left two days before the shooting. The video actually shows abandoned items and Russian flags still flying above the communications tower.

“They have nothing to do there”

A few days ago, the Kommersant newspaper wrote about the possible withdrawal of the Russian military from the airfield in Kamyshly. According to the publication, the interim government of Syria wanted to initiate negotiations with Moscow on the status of the base after the expected transfer of the province of Hasakah - the last stronghold of the Kurdish forces - from the SDF to the control of the central authorities. Kommersant's Syrian source claimed that after this, Damascus will raise the question of how appropriate the presence of Russian military personnel in Qamishli is, and will probably ask them to leave the site.

“It seems to me that the Russians will be asked to leave Qamishli completely. Now they have nothing to do there,”

— Kommersant’s interlocutor explained.

Back in 2019, the head of the Russian aviation commandant’s office, Timur Khodzhaev, reported that Moscow allocated military police, air defense systems and armored vehicles for the operation of the facility. Russian military police continued to work in the area even after the change of government in Damascus on December 8, 2024. Patrols in the vicinity of Qamishli were spotted a few days after the visit of the Foreign Minister of the Syrian transitional government, Asaad al-Shaibani, to Moscow on July 31 - August 1, 2025. At the same time, Syrian media reported that Moscow had increased its military presence in Qamishli.

Today, in addition to the airfield in Qamishli, the Russian army has in Syria the Khmeimim airbase in the province of Latakia and a naval logistics center in Tartus.

Military observer for the BBC Russian Service Ilya Barabanov, in a conversation with New Europe, drew attention to the dynamics of the number of Russians voting in elections and referendums in Syria. According to him, from 2016 to 2024 this number grew steadily - from about 4.5 thousand to about 7.5 thousand people .

- It is clear that most of them were military. After the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, most soldiers were redeployed from Syria. How many of them are there now is unknown.

But we know that after the change of power in the country, some of the military equipment was taken by sea to the Libyan port of Tobruk, from where it, apparently, went to the disposal of the Afrika Korps [Ministry of Defense] in Mali,” Barabanov said.

This equipment includes T-72 tanks, BTR-82 armored personnel carriers, BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles and Grad multiple launch rocket systems.

There are no exact data on the number of Russian military personnel in Syria in open sources, military observer David Sharp noted in an interview with Novaya-Europa.

— I can assume that today there are a small number of Russian army soldiers in this country, from several hundred to a little over a thousand people. They are mainly engaged in the protection of military bases, equipment, equipment and themselves. The technicians support aircraft departures and landings, as well as the dispatch and acceptance of ships, Sharp explained.

The Khmeimim airport and the naval station in Tartus can be used as transshipment points for supplying the Afrika Korps, the expert believes.

The interlocutor of “New Europe” emphasizes that in the current conditions, the Russian military in Syria, in fact, is not assigned active combat missions. The presence in Qamishli was initially seen as an attempt to contain Turkish influence and protect Kurdish forces. But in the end, after the change of power in Damascus, the base turned out to be unnecessary.