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By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
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Ukrainian special forces attacked a Russian air base in Syria after a meeting between Vladimir Putin and his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, it has been reported.
Assad is a close ally of Putin, whom he relied on to prop up his regime during the Syrian civil war. A supporter of Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Assad met with the Russian president at the Kremlin on July 24. Moscow wants the Syrian leader to meet Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to restore the ties Ankara severed with Damascus in 2011 after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, Reuters reported.
Within hours of that meeting, Ukraine's military intelligence (GUR) conducted a strike at a key Russian military site in Syria, according to the Kyiv Post, which has posted imagery purporting to show the operation.
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The targeting of the Russian Army's Kuweires airfield, located east of Aleppo, was carried out by Ukraine's Khimik group of fighters, the publication said, citing unnamed GUR sources.
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The video, which features dramatic music, purports to show the key moments of the operation. These include a Russian mobile electronic warfare (EW) complex being destroyed at nighttime and then the aftermath of the strike filmed during the day.
It also purports to show drones attacking objects at the airbase, which Ukrainian intelligence said is used for training and transporting foreign mercenaries to the war in Ukraine.
Newsweek has contacted the GUR and the Russian defense ministry for comment.
The incident is the latest report of alleged military operations by Kyiv's forces being carried out far from the front line of the war started by Putin in Ukraine.
Andriy Yusov, GUR spokesperson said Kyiv had been involved in providing information for an ambush of Wagner mercenaries in Mali by a coalition of Tuareg rebels in which dozens were killed. The Kyiv Post published a photo it said showed Malian rebels holding a Ukrainian flag after the attack.
Meanwhile, a GUR source told online English-language outlet the Kyiv Independent about an alleged Ukrainian military intelligence operation in which Russia's financial institutions and telecommunications providers were hit in a week-long cyber-attack.
The source told the publication that the targeted institutions had not fully restored their services as of Tuesday evening and that the attack was only "a prelude to more interesting events."
Separately, Ukraine's Navy attacked a weapons storage facility near the Russian city of Kursk overnight Tuesday, according to the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces.
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