Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Wednesday, reiterated his stance on the Ukraine war to Russian state-run media RIA, saying that Damascus recognizes the territories claimed by Russia in Ukraine.
"I say that these are Russian territories, and even if the war had not happened, these are historically Russian territories," Assad told RIA.
Some background: Ukraine and Syria cut diplomatic ties last summer. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the severing of ties with Assad’s government after Damascus recognized the independence of the two Russian-backed separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, located in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
Syria was the first country, after its close ally Russia, to recognize the independence of the breakaway regions and state its intention to build diplomatic relations with them last month.
In September 2022, Russia also declared the annexation of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions — parts of which are occupied by Russia troops — in defiance of international law after so-called referendums in the regions that were universally dismissed as “shams” by Ukraine and Western nations.
Russia began a military operation in Syria to prop up the Assad regime six years before its invasion of Ukraine.