26 Feb 2022; MEMO: Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has reiterated his support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying that it benefits not only Moscow but humanity as a whole.
In a phone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin yesterday, Assad told him that the Russian invasion of Ukraine "doesn't only defend itself, but it defends the world and principles of justice and humanity."
He added that the "Russian Federation will give a lesson to the world that the superpowers are not great with their military strength only, but with respect for the law, high morals and humanitarian principles."
As the Russian military launched operations earlier this week, targeting civilian and military sites as its forces close in on and try to capture the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Assad's regime in Syria was the first to vocally declare support for the invasion.
Assad's phone call further cements that support, confirming that "Syria stands with the Russian Federation based on its conviction that its position is correct and because confronting NATO expansionism is a right for Russia."
According to a statement by the Syrian presidency after the phone call, he even went so far as to call it "a correction of history and a restoration of balance in the global order after the fall of the Soviet Union".
Throughout the ongoing decade-long conflict in Syria, Russia has militarily intervened in the country to assist the Assad regime against the Syrian opposition. Since then, Damascus has shared extremely close ties with Moscow and supported its ambitions in the region and abroad.
Syrian opposition factions, as well as those who support the Syrian revolution within those territories in northern Syria, have announced their support for Ukraine and its territorial integrity, continuing to oppose Russian aggression but now on a different front.
