Ukraine war: "It was a test" - did Russia practice the attack in Syria?

Created: 03/19/2022, 06:21

By: Julia Schöneseiffen

The Russian war against Ukraine bears chilling parallels to Russia's involvement in the 2015 Syrian war. 

Kyiv/Damascus - The war in Syria began eleven years ago.

In 2015, Russia intervened in the war alongside Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad.

This was done under the pretext of supporting Assad in the fight against the so-called "Islamic State" (IS).

But it quickly became clear that there were also strategic considerations behind the operation that took no account of the civilian population.

Something similar can now be observed in the Russia-Ukraine war, as shown by the bombing of a theater in Mariupol, Ukraine, which housed hundreds of civilians.

Parallels between Ukraine and Syria: Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure

“Syria was not just a testing ground for Russian war tactics.

It was a test for a second war," explained Hamid Quataini from the civil defense in Syria to

.

Only a week before the Russian attack on Ukraine, the Russian Defense Minister had visited the Syrian ruler al-Assad.

Russia had tested more than 320 types of weapons in Syria, it was said afterwards.

The biggest parallel between Syria and Ukraine is the Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure to demoralize the people.

The doctor Monzer Yazji cared for the seriously injured in emergency hospitals during the Syrian war.

Yazji, who now lives in the United States, is now traveling with a Syrian medical team in the Ukrainian war zone.

The doctor explained to

: “I have experienced direct shelling of hospitals several times in Aleppo.

And now the same thing is happening here in Ukraine.

They shoot at power plants, water reservoirs, schools, hospitals.” Hospitals are not spared in the Ukraine conflict either.

Russian troops fired on a maternity clinic in the embattled port city of Mariupol.

A maternity hospital was bombed in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

© Evgeniy Maloletka / AP / dpa

Russian war operations in Ukraine and Syria: "Brutality of warfare"

Margarete Klein, a researcher on Eastern Europe at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), also sees parallels between the two Russian war missions.

“These are above all the brutality of warfare and the shelling of cities.

With the number of victims taken into account," she said in an interview with the

.

However, she also pointed out: “The operation itself is different.

In Syria it was primarily an air operation, there were hardly any Russian ground troops.

We are now seeing large army groups in Ukraine.” You can find more about the military battles in the Ukraine war in our news ticker.