Moscow's Syria

`June 20, 2024

Ukrainian forces decimated Russian mercenaries in the Golan Heights on June 3 with help from Syrian rebels. The attack was not reported in the Western press, but was undertaken to prevent Moscow from recruiting and training more terrorists and soldiers for its armed forces. Syria is a failed state and has become a staging ground for Moscow’s misadventures. Putin still has military bases and thousands of soldiers there, years after sending its troops to help President Bashar al-Assad crush pro-democratic movements. That civil war led to the world’s largest refugee crisis, and became the testing ground for Russian weapons and tactics that now destroy Ukraine. It was also where Hamas and others were trained to attack Israel and is now where Moscow continues to execute schemes aimed at destabilizing the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. Just before October 7, Ukrainian intelligence tipped off Netanyahu that an attack out of Syria was imminent but he didn’t heed the warning. However, this time Kyiv commandos obliterated training and recruiting centers there because, as a Syrian veteran explained, “Syrians and Ukrainians have the same enemy and the same killer”. And so does the West.