Satellite Images Reveal Russian Military Evacuating Syria

Maxar satellite images on Friday show Russian military vessels preparing to depart and equipment being dismantled near the Hmeimim Air Base in Syria, several days after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled the country to Moscow.

The satellite images come nearly a week after Assad was ousted from the Middle Eastern country following a swift offensive led by the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), along with other coalition forces, and has sought asylum in Russia, an ally of Assad. Syria’s longtime leader, who, along with his father have ruled the country for over 50 years, was supported by Russia and Iran, and since Assad’s departure, Russia’s hold on the region is weakening.

Imagery shows “two Russian An-124 military transport aircraft preparing to load cargo,” at the airbase located in western Syria that Russia has operated since 2015, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The transport aircraft located at the airbase near the city of Latakia, had “their nose cones lifted and prepared to load equipment/cargo.”

In addition, nearby a “Ka-52 attack helicopter being dismantled and likely prepared for transport while elements of an S-400 air defense unit similarly prepare to depart from its previous deployment site at the airbase,” the ISW said.

The think tank published the images on their X, formerly Twitter, account on Friday and on their website.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian military for comment via email on Saturday.

Further south along Syria’s coast, images show “two Russian frigates [warships] still offshore of the Port of Tartus,” a Russian naval base, and its only in the Mediterranean. For more than five decades, Tartus had hosted a naval supply and maintenance base for Moscow and, as its only Mediterranean fueling spot, enabled the Kremlin to project power on the southern flank of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) near Africa.

Drone footage shows Russian military convoys in transit, the ISW said, adding that “it is unclear if the convoys are heading toward the Port of Tartus or Hmeimim Air Base, but the reported movement of Russian military assets indicates that Russia is…