The military of Russia and the United States smile and take pictures together in Syria. How did this become possible
Over the weekend, US and Russian troops met in northeast Syria. Despite the extremely bad relations between the two countries due to the Russian attack on Ukraine, this meeting was quite friendly: the parties exchanged friendly handshakes and took pictures together. A photo report about this event was published by Agence France-Presse.
This, no doubt, was a rare manifestation of friendliness between the opposing sides.
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In addition to sharp disagreements over Ukraine (the United States is Kyiv's biggest arms supplier), Washington and Moscow are backing different sides in the civil war that has torn Syria apart since 2011.
But on the morning of October 8, US and Russian patrols crossed paths at an oil field near the town of Al-Qahtania in the northeastern Syrian province of Al-Hasakah. Part of this region is controlled by the Syrian central government (with Russian support), and part is controlled by the Kurdish administration, assisted by American troops.
It was far from the first time they had crossed paths in the Kurdish-controlled region, but instead of just passing each other, this time the columns stopped - and the soldiers of both sides began to talk peacefully and pose for photographs.
In 2020, an incident occurred in the area, after which the United States and Russia blamed each other for a collision between a Russian armored personnel carrier and a US military vehicle, as a result of which several US military were injured. US military personnel were injured when a Russian military patrol crashed into their vehicle, US authorities said. Moscow said the Americans tried to block their patrol.
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According to correspondents, several servicemen even exchanged uniform patches as souvenirs.
However, in one of the video of the meeting, which is being circulated on Russian social networks, the Russian military in obscene form (in Russian) promise to defeat the Americans as parting.
The United States has consistently opposed the regime of Bashar al-Assad and deployed troops in northeast Syria for the first time in 2014 as part of a coalition to fight the Islamic State group (recognized as a terrorist group and banned in Russia and other countries of the world).
Russia has supported the Assad government since 2015, but did not deploy its forces in the northeast of the country until 2019, when Turkey launched operations against the Kurdish militias.
Both sides have been taking measures since 2015 to prevent direct clashes between Russian and American forces. According to AFP, the presence of Russian forces also helped the US army avoid direct confrontation with the formations of the Syrian regime.