Russia beats U.S. to punch on Syria ‘no-fly-zone’

Russia has beaten the United States to a key strategy in Syria with its new ability to create a no-fly zone, delivered by a new S-300 surface-to-air missile system, according to military analysts.

 

Word of the development comes in a report from Reuters, which cited its own analysis of “publicly available tracking data.”

 

That shows that Russia has been building up forces in Syria since last month when a ceasefire plan collapsed.

 

Among the benefits of the “increased manpower” likely are specialists to run the S-300 system, which will grant the country better “ability to control air space in Syrian where Moscow’s forces support the government of President Bashar al-Assad, and could be aimed at deterring tougher U.S. action.”

 

“The S-300 basically gives Russia the ability to declare a no-fly zone over Syria,” Justin Bronk, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told Reuters.

 

The report from Jack Stubbs and Maria Tsvetkova cited “data points” in explaining that there’s likely been a doubling of supply runs by air and sea, based on what was known to have been delivered in the time period just before the attempted ceasefire.

 

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