Russia's elite special forces contingents are active on the battlefield in Syria, directing Russian warplanes, the commander of Russia's forces in Syria admitted in an interview published Wednesday. "I won't conceal that there are also contingents of our special operations forces in Syria," said Alexander Dvornikov, who serves as commander of Russian troops in Syria and recently received top military honours from President Vladimir Putin.
"They are carrying out additional reconnaissance of targets for Russian airstrikes, they direct aircraft to targets in far-flung areas and solve other special tasks," he said in an interview to Rossiyskaya Gazeta state newspaper. Moscow has said it has advisors active in Syria but Dvornikov made it clear the special forces officers were a separate group, while advisors trained both the Syrian army and other groups fighting alongside with regime forces, including the Syrian Kurds.
"Our military advisors worked and are working on all levels, including tactical," he said. Within a short time of launching the campaign on September 30, Russia "created a system of military advisors", he said. "They successfully solved the issue concerning training of government forces, Kurds and other patriotic groups," said Dvornikov. Russia also delivered a whole array of equipment to the Syrian army, including "artillery systems, communication and surveillance equipment", he said.
Dvornikov said he first arrived with his group to Syria in September, when "the situation was definitely not in favour of Damascus" as "militants" had controlled most of Homs, were on the offensive in Latakia and were preparing to take Aleppo. Russian forces have "radically changed the situation" in five and a half months, he said. With Syrian forces on the offensive, the taking of Palmyra under government control would "cut (Islamic State group) into two parts and open the road toward Raqa and Deir El Zor, creating conditions for reaching the border to Iraq and taking it under control," he said.