Russia sends 276 policemen to Syria, military police begins patrolling

A Russian patrol on the Syrian borders in the city of Kobani
Northern Syria – North-Press Agency

The Russian Defense Ministry in a statement released today (Thursday) has announced that it would send 276 military policemen and 33 vehicles to Syria within a week.
While the military police announced beginning to patrol for the first time in the city of Kobani on the Syrian-Turkish borders.

The spokesman of the Russian Forces Command in Syria Major General Igor Seritsky in a press statement published on Thursday said: “According to the agreements reached between the Russian and Turkish presidents since the afternoon of October 23, Russian military units began patrolling along the Syrian-Turkish borders, including the area of Kobani”.

Regarding the location of the Russian police station in Kobani in northern Syria, he said: “Our station is located at the borders a few kilometers from Kobani and two kilometers from the Turkish territories on atop hill and equipped with a communications tower”.

He added that the Russian military police with the Syrian border guards will set up a mechanism for the withdrawal of the YPG and its weapons from the bordering area in accordance with the Turkish-Russian agreement.

The deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin said: “The Kurdish units began to withdraw on Thursday from the bordering areas in Syria, according to Sochi agreement between the Turkish and Russian sides”.

In another statement, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that “the ultimate goal of the settlement in Syria is the withdrawal of any foreign forces,” adding that the U.S. military presence in Syria is illegal”.

The Russian-Turkish agreement provides patrols on the Syrian borders, and 10 km deep inside the Syrian territories, in return for the withdrawal of the SDF with its heavy weapons out of the borders.

The SDF announced yesterday in a statement that its commander-in-chief General Mazloum Abdi said in a call with the Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu that some points of the understanding need to be discussed to bring the views closer.