Exclusive: Syrian refugee in Kyiv describes Islamic state as Putin ally
The man requested his identity remain hidden for fear of reprisals against his family
A personal story – a refugee from the Syrian war, adapting to life in Kyiv. The former doctor requested his identity be hidden. He fears reprisals from Russian forces. It’s their warplanes which are now launching airstrikes around his home city – Holms – a city where his relatives remained behind. He spoke with a correspondent from Ukraine Today’s partner news agency TSN – and was strongly critical of Putin’s military operation in the Middle East.
He said, “the Free Syrian Army was in only one of the 7 villages that the Russians bombed yesterday. Peaceful people lived in the other villages, where there were schools, hospitals, churches, mosques, houses, markets. They bombed one village with weapons for the Free Syrian Army – not the Islamic State.”
Russian defence officials say Islamic State militants are the intended targets of their air strikes. The terrorist group is mainly clustered in central and eastern Syria, several dozens kilometers away from where Moscow’s forces dropped their bombs.
Read also US media reports: Russian airstrikes did not target Islamic State
The refugee said, “these bombs which Russia dropped on people yesterday have a very strong, distructive effect. Now you can see that these are not Syrian planes and not Syrian weapons.”
The Kremlin said US claims of fatalities on the ground after airstrikes was part of an information war. But this Syrian refugee says this news is all too real.
With reporting from TSN correspondent Yana Slesarchuk
Open all references in tabs: [1 – 5]