President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered Russia’s armed forces to act in an “extremely tough way” in Syria to protect Russian forces striking Islamic State targets there.
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During the last three months, Russia has conducted thousands of airstrikes in Syria, destroying over 7,300 ISIS targets, Russian officials said.
“I want to warn anyone who might again try to organize a provocation against our troops”, Putin said.
Western and Arab states carrying out air strikes against Islamic State for more than a year say that Russian jets have mainly hit other rebel forces in the west of Syria.
On Thursday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the Russian air force was preparing to use two Syrian airbases near Homs to strike targets in the Islamic State-controlled city of Palmyra.
Kerry has said he hopes to travel to Moscow next week to discuss the Syrian crisis with President Vladimir Putin, but the visit has not been officially confirmed.
This has been the stated goal of Russia’s aerial intervention in the Syrian civil war since operations began on September 30.
Shoigu said the military has received 35 new intercontinental ballistic missiles, 243 aircraft, 90 air defense systems and 1,172 tanks and other armored vehicles so far this year.
Russia’s nuclear forces, a heavy focus of the rearmament program, are also set to receive five new regiments of ballistic missiles in 2016, Shoigu said.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told Ukraine’s parliament this week that Washington “will maintain pressure until Moscow fulfills its Minsk commitments” and that that U.S. sanctions against Moscow will remain in place “until Russian Federation meets all of its commitments under the” accords signed in February.
At the same time, he said that the military should “develop cooperation with all countries, which have a real interest in destroying terrorists”, specifically mentioning the need to coordinate with the U.S.-led coalition and Israel to ensure flight safety.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov meanwhile said he saw “prospects” for progress in the development of a transition plan, after meeting with representatives of the U.S. and United Nations in Geneva on Friday.
Declarations from Putin seem to be the first to affirm Moscow is truly supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s adversaries in the combat against forces from the Islamic State.
A Russian pilot was killed in the downing of the Su-24 bomber, as was a marine sent on a rescue mission, badly damaging the normally close ties between Ankara and Moscow.
That being said, he did not clarify the situation about the supplies to the Free Syrian Army.
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Defence minister Sergei Shoigu said, however, that the influence of ISIL was increasing in Syria, where militants control around 70 per cent of the country.
