29 Mar 2024
Sputnik News - From June 19, Russia is halting all interactions with the US within the framework on the memorandum of incident prevention in Syrian skies, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday following the US-led coalition's downing of a Syrian army's jet near Raqqa.





Russian missile defense will intercept any aircraft inthe area ofoperations ofthe Russian Aerospace Forces inSyria, the ministry said.

"In areas where Russian aviation is conducting combat missions inthe Syrian skies, any flying ojects, including jets and unmanned aerial vehicles ofthe international coalition discovered west ofthe Euphrates River will be followed byRussian air and ground defenses asair targets," the Russian Defense Ministry announced.

The US-led coalition command didn't use the deconfliction channel withRussia toavoid an incident duringan operation inRaqqa, the ministry said.
"Russian Aerospace Forces' jets were conducting operations inSyrian airspace that time. However, the command ofthe coalition forces didn't use the existing channel betweenthe air command ofthe Qatari airbase al Udeid and the [Russian] Hmeymim airbase toavoid incidents overSyria," the ministry said.


The ministry added that it "demands a thorough investigation bythe US command withthe provision ofits results and measures taken."

The United States and Russia signed the bilateral memorandum ofunderstanding inOctober 2015 toensure the safety offlights duringcombat missions overSyria.

On June 18, the Syrian army said that the US-led coalition had brought downits aircraft insouthern Raqqa countryside when it was fulfilling its mission againstDaesh.

Later, the coalition confirmed the information saying that it shot downthe Syrian government forces' Su-22 aircraft asit had allegedly been bombing inan area where US-backed rebel forces, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), were stationed, south ofTabqa inthe Raqqa province. The US-led coalition called its attack onthe Syrian army's jet "collective self-defense," adding that it contacted the Russian military tode-escalate the situation afterthe incident.

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