Russian intervention in the Syrian civil war
Russian military operation beginning in September 2015
From September 2015 until December 2024, Russia conducted a military intervention in the Syrian civil war, following a request by Ba'athist Syria under Bashar al-Assad for support against the Syrian opposition and Islamic State (IS). The Russian Armed Forces' first conflict beyond the former Soviet Union since its dissolution; analysts pointed to strategic aims including limiting United States influence in the Middle East, access to the Eastern Mediterranean, and military capacity for other theaters of the Middle East, such as the Red Sea and Libya.
Pre-intervention, government forces controlled 26% of Syria. Russian involvement had included diplomatic support for Assad and billions of US dollars' worth of materiel for the Syrian Arab Armed Forces. The intervention began with airstrikes focused on Free Syrian Army militias. Russian ground support included special forces, advisors and private military companies like the Wagner Group. Russia declared the strikes a "war against terrorism", but used scorched earth methods against civilians. Putin defined Russia's goals as "stabilising the legitimate power in Syria and creating the conditions for political compromise", while a speculated aim was capturing territories from US-UK-Arab-backed militias. Syrian territory under Assad's control shrank from 26% to 17% by 2017.
By January 2017, the Russian Air Force was claimed to have carried out 19,160 air combat missions, delivering 71,000 strikes.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Russian intervention in the Syrian civil war” is russian military operation beginning in September 2015. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Russian, intervention and Syrian, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21032720. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2015, 2024 and 2017.
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