Photo: Sputnik/ Grigori Sysoyev
Any force that threatens the Russian military in Syria should be destroyed, Russia President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting with the Russian Defense Ministry, reports.
The Russian military operation in Syria wasn’t motivated by geopolitical interests or a desire to test new weapons; it was initiated because the Islamic State directly threatens Russia, President Vladimir Putin said.
“Our soldiers in Syria are, first and foremost, defending their country. Our actions there aren’t motivated by some obscure and abstract geopolitical interests or a desire to train our forces and test new weapons – which is of course an important goal as well. Our main objective is to avert a threat to the Russian Federation,” Putin said during a meeting with the Russian Defense Ministry officials.
Putin added that any force threatening the Russian military in Syria would be destroyed and called on the military to react extremely strong should this happen.
“I instruct you to act extremely rigid. Any target threatening a Russian grouping or our ground infrastructure needs to be immediately destroyed,” Putin said.
Russian military personnel have inflicted serious damage to the Islamic State in Syria and have been able to change the situation in the country, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.
“I won’t give exact figures now because this will be said by the defense minister in his report, but I’ll say the main thing. The combined use of force from the Aerospace Forces and the Navy, the use of the newest precise systems of weaponry has allowed us to deliver serious damage to the infrastructure of terrorists, and has seriously changed the situation in Syria,” Putin said during a meeting with the Defense Ministry.