Russian intervention in the Syrian civil war

From September 2015 until December 2024, Russia conducted a military intervention in the Syrian civil war, following a request by the regime of Bashar al-Assad for support against the Syrian opposition and Islamic State (IS) . This began with extensive airstrikes across Syria, focused on strongholds of the Syrian opposition, including the Free Syrian Army. Support in the ground war included Special Operations Forces, military advisors and private military contractors like the Wagner Group. Prior to the intervention, Russian involvement had included diplomatic support for Assad and billions of dollars' worth of materiel for the Syrian Arab Armed Forces. It was the first conflict of the Russian Armed Forces beyond the post-Soviet states since the dissolution of the Soviet Union; analysts point to Russian aims including mounting great power competition with the United States, guaranteeing access to the Eastern Mediterranean, and improving military capacity across the Middle East, such as in the Red Sea and Libya.

At the onset of the intervention, the Syrian government controlled only 26% of Syrian territory. Although Russia initially declared a "war against terrorism" solely targeting the Islamic State", Russia employed scorched earth methods against civilian areas and Syrian opposition strongholds opposed to IS and Al-Qaeda. Aims of President Vladimir Putin were believed to include maintaining the allied Ba'athist government in Damascus, and capturing territories from American-backed Free Syrian militias, with a strategic goal of rolling back US influence. In October 2015, Putin defined Russia's goal in Syria as "stabilising the legitimate power in Syria and creating the conditions for political compromise". In 2016 alone, more than 80% of Russian aerial attacks targeted opposition militias fighting the Islamic State. Despite Russia's extensive bombing of opposition strongholds, the territory under the Assad regime's actual control shrank from 26% of Syria in 2015 to 17% in early 2017.

In early January 2017, Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov said that the Russian Air Force had carried out 19,160 combat missions and delivered 71,000 strikes on "the infrastructure of terrorists". The intervention only began producing concrete gains for the Assad government from 2017; after the recapture of Aleppo in December 2016. These included the recaptures of Palmyra and Deir ez-Zor from the Islamic State in 2017, fall of Daraa and collapse of the Southern Front during the 2018 Southern Syria offensive; followed by the complete seizure of M5 Motorway during the North-Western Syria offensive. In December 2017, the Russian government announced that its troops would be deployed to Syria permanently.

By the end of April 2018, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Russian bombings directly killed more than 7,700 civilians, about a quarter of them children, apart from 4,749 opposition fighters and 4,893 IS fighters. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International stated that Russia was committing war crimes and deliberately targeting civilians. Weapons used included unguided bombs, cluster bombs, incendiaries similar to white phosphorus and thermobaric weapons. The Russian campaign has been criticised by numerous international bodies for indiscriminate aerial bombings across Syria that target schools and civilian infrastructures and carpet bombing of cities like Aleppo. A 2020 UN report revealed that Russian airstrikes also "weaponized health-care" through its hospital bombardment campaigns; by pursuing a deliberate policy of bombing ambulances, clinical facilities, hospitals and all medical infrastructure. Russia also reportedly employed double tap strikes to target relief workers.

Countries with ties to Russia, as well as Israel, Jordan and Egypt, either voiced support or stayed neutral, while the US, as well as Turkey and most Gulf states, were critical, denouncing Russia's role and complicity with the Syrian regime's war crimes. The United States government imposed economic sanctions against Russia for supporting the Syrian government. Officials at the United Nations condemned the Russian intervention and stated that Russia was committing war crimes. Russian authorities dismissed this denunciation, including accusations of "barbarism", labeling them as false and politically motivated, thereby eliciting further condemnation from governments that support the rebel groups.

In November 2024, the renewal of Russian airstrikes failed to halt the Syrian opposition offensives across the country. In the wake of Syrian opposition advances, and the widespread collapse of Syrian government forces, Russia began to withdraw their forces, and the fall of the Assad regime followed in December. Russian forces in Syria at that time consisted of special forces, base security and an aviation unit.