Syria Support Movement solidarity with the Syrian people
from the News Desk at The Cradle, published September 17, 2024
Special forces from the Khimik group of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) attacked a Russian military base in Syria, the Kyiv Post reported on 16 September.
The Ukrainian newspaper learned of the attack through information and video of the attack provided by the HUR.
According to a military intelligence source, the operation took place on 15 September in the southeastern outskirts of the northern city of Aleppo.
Russian forces used the base targeted by HUR special forces to manufacture and test strike UAVs, as well as to produce “camouflaged improvised explosive devices,” whose warheads were stored at the site, HUR claimed.
A video allegedly filmed by an intelligence officer and provided to the Kyiv Post shows a HUR flag is visible near the Russian base. An explosion erupts at the base a short time later, followed by the detonation of ammunition.
According to Kyiv Post sources, the Khimik group also targeted Russian military equipment at the Kuweires airfield, located east of Aleppo, in July.
In early June, Ukrainian special forces attacked Russian checkpoints, strongholds, foot patrols, and columns of military equipment in the Golan Heights in Syria, the Kyiv Post reported.
Sunday’s attack on the Russian base comes amid reports that a large group of Ukrainian military experts arrived in Syria’s northern Idlib governorate to train extremist militants in the use and manufacture of drones.
A source told Sputnik on 17 September, “There is confirmed information that the number of Ukrainian military experts who arrived in Idlib has reached about 250, they have been distributed to industrial workshops and several sites in the city of Idlib and the countryside of Jisr al-Shughur, to manufacture drones.”
Russia has maintained a military presence in Syria since intervening in the country in 2015. Starting in September of that year, the Russian Air Force played a key role in helping the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) defeat US, Israeli, and Gulf-backed extremist groups threatening to conquer Damascus, including ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra.
In February 2022, Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine.
In May 2023, HUR chief Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov promised to “destroy Russian war criminals anywhere in the world they may be.”
