Ukrainian operatives aided Syrian rebels with drones

12/12/2024 6:11

Syrian fighters received

about 150 drones as well as other covert support from Ukrainian

intelligence operatives last month, weeks ahead of the rebels'

advance that toppled Bashar al-Assad over the weekend, according

to the Washington Post.



Citing unnamed sources familiar with Ukrainian military

activities, the Post late on Tuesday said Ukrainian intelligence

sent about 20 drone operators and about 150 first-person-view

drones about four to five weeks ago to aid Hayat Tahrir al-Sham

(HTS).



Russia's foreign ministry had earlier said, without

providing evidence, that the rebels had received drones from

Ukraine and training in how to operate them, an accusation that

Ukraine's foreign ministry at the time said it "categorically"

rejected.



A former al Qaeda affiliate, HTS has moved to install an

interim administration after Syria's 13-year civil war fractured

the country amid one of the most oppressive police states in the

Middle East under five decades of Assad family rule.



Russia, which is locked in its own conflict with Ukraine

after invading the country in February 2022, is a key ally of

Assad and stepped in to provide him military support in the

country's civil war in 2015.



The Russian military had helped Assad's forces launch air

strikes against the rebels earlier this month. But Russian war

bloggers had warned that the toppling of Assad threatened not

only two strategically-important Russian military facilities in

Syria but also Moscow's very presence in the Middle East.