MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin praised Russian soldiers on Thursday for their actions in Syria, saying the Russian campaign there has demonstrated the might of the nation’s revamped military to the world.
Speaking at a Kremlin awards ceremony for troops who fought in Syria, Putin said Russia has “made the main, decisive contribution to the destruction of a criminal group that cast a challenge to the entire civilization.”
He said that Daesh was seeking to turn Syria into a base for “global aggression” and threaten Russia.
Putin said the more than 48,000 Russian troops who took part in the Syria campaign were fighting for their “homeland, for a just and fair cause.”
“Your heroic actions and professionalism helped preserve the Syrian state, stop mass killings, executions and terror against civilians,” Putin told hundreds of soldiers who gathered in the Kremlin’s opulent, gold-and-white St. George’s Hall.
Also on Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said 16 patients and their families had been evacuated from besieged suburbs of Damascus.
The ICRC said the latest evacuations from Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, were carried out late on Wednesday and into Thursday in coordination with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. It said more than half of the 16 medical evacuees were children.
The ICRC said on Wednesday the regime had agreed to allow 29 patients and their families to be evacuated from the besieged region — a sliver of the some 500 people listed by the UN as requiring urgent medical care in Damascus. More than a dozen have died waiting for evacuation, according to the UN.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely tracks the conflict through activists and other sources inside Syria, said 17 patients have been evacuated since Tuesday. It said militants had released 26 people, including eight minors and four women.
The Observatory said the war killed about 39,000 people in 2017, of which it had documented 33,425 by name.
The group, which monitors casualties on all sides of the complex war, said the dead included 10,507 civilians, 2,923 regime troops and 7,494 extremist fighters, mainly members of Daesh and an Al-Qaeda-linked outfit.
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Putin: Syrian campaign showed off Russia’s military might
Putin: Syrian campaign showed off Russia’s military might
UN delivers vital aid to Sudan’s Kordofan: WFP
- Life-saving aid from several UN agencies reaches 130,000 people in Dilling and Kadugli
- The famine-hit South Kordofan state capital Kadugli had endured a punishing RSF siege
CAIRO: A convoy of life-saving aid from several UN agencies has reached two cut-off cities in Sudan’s Kordofan region, currently the fiercest frontline in the nearly three-year war.
“This marks the first major delivery of assistance to the area in three months,” the World Food Programme said in a statement on Tuesday.
It said 26 trucks had delivered essential supplies including medicine and food for more than 130,000 people in Dilling and Kadugli.
Since April 2023, the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in a bitter struggle for control of the country.
The famine-hit South Kordofan state capital Kadugli had endured a punishing RSF siege for much of the conflict, before the army broke the blockade this month.
Nearby Dilling, where the army also recently broke an RSF siege, is believed to be experiencing similar famine conditions.
The cities had come to exemplify the violence in Kordofan, where hundreds of thousands face starvation under daily drone strikes.
Dilling lies halfway between Kadugli and North Kordofan capital, El-Obeid.
Violent clashes and ongoing insecurity along the main route linking the three cities had “forced the convoy to halt for more than 40 days,” the WFP said.
The trucks reached Dilling by taking “a longer and more difficult off-road passage,” it added.
“Routes must stay open and predictable so vital assistance can reach people without interruption, including communities that have been cut off for far too long,” said Makena Walker, acting country director for WFP in Sudan.
Since seizing El-Fasher — the army’s last stronghold in western Darfur — last October, the RSF have pushed eastward into oil-rich Kordofan.
The vast agricultural region lies between RSF-controlled Darfur in the west and army-held areas in the north, east and center.
The nearly three-year war has killed tens of thousands, displaced 11 million and triggered what the UN calls one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
With truce talks deadlocked for months, the UN has repeatedly urged warring parties to respect international humanitarian law and allow access for aid.
“This marks the first major delivery of assistance to the area in three months,” the World Food Programme said in a statement on Tuesday.
It said 26 trucks had delivered essential supplies including medicine and food for more than 130,000 people in Dilling and Kadugli.
Since April 2023, the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in a bitter struggle for control of the country.
The famine-hit South Kordofan state capital Kadugli had endured a punishing RSF siege for much of the conflict, before the army broke the blockade this month.
Nearby Dilling, where the army also recently broke an RSF siege, is believed to be experiencing similar famine conditions.
The cities had come to exemplify the violence in Kordofan, where hundreds of thousands face starvation under daily drone strikes.
Dilling lies halfway between Kadugli and North Kordofan capital, El-Obeid.
Violent clashes and ongoing insecurity along the main route linking the three cities had “forced the convoy to halt for more than 40 days,” the WFP said.
The trucks reached Dilling by taking “a longer and more difficult off-road passage,” it added.
“Routes must stay open and predictable so vital assistance can reach people without interruption, including communities that have been cut off for far too long,” said Makena Walker, acting country director for WFP in Sudan.
Since seizing El-Fasher — the army’s last stronghold in western Darfur — last October, the RSF have pushed eastward into oil-rich Kordofan.
The vast agricultural region lies between RSF-controlled Darfur in the west and army-held areas in the north, east and center.
The nearly three-year war has killed tens of thousands, displaced 11 million and triggered what the UN calls one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
With truce talks deadlocked for months, the UN has repeatedly urged warring parties to respect international humanitarian law and allow access for aid.
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