Photo: Valery Sharifulin/TASS    

The first group of Russian planes has left the Hmeimim air base in Syria for their permanent locations, TASS reports, quoting the Russian Defense Ministry.

“The group consists of the leader plane – a Tupolev-154 liner and multi-role Sukhoi-34 bombers,” the ministry specified.

The Kremlin press service released a statement on Monday evening that the Russian and Syrian presidents, Vladimir Putin and Bashar Assad, agreed to start withdrawing the main part of the Russian aviation task force from Syria because the Russian Aerospace Forces had fulfilled the fundamental tasks assigned to them.
Russia will leave an air flight control center in the Syrian territory that will monitor the observation of the Syrian ceasefire.