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Russian believes the US cruise missile strike against an airfield in Syria Thursday constitutes an “aggression against a sovereign Syria,” and has suspended an air cooperation deal meant to keep U.S. and Russian pilots from crossing each other’s paths over Syria.
Russia is also pledging to help Syria strengthen its air defenses in the event of another U.S. attack.
The statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry comes several hours after two U.S. Navy warships in the eastern Mediterranean showered a Syrian airfield with 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles in President Trump’s first major military action.
The Syrian military says six people on the air base were killed, the Associated Press reported. Russia says none of its service members at the base were harmed.
The airfield is believed to be the launching point for this week’s chemical attack against civilians in Idlib, Syria, which Washington has pinned on Syrian President Bashar Assad.
“It is in this vital national security interest of the U.S. to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons,” Trump said. “There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons violated its obligation under the chemical weapons convention and ignored the urging of the United Nations Security Council.”
The Kremlin said the U.S. launched the strikes under a “far-fetched pretext.”
“The US opted for a show of force, for military action against a country fighting international terrorism without taking the trouble to get the facts straight,” the Foreign Ministry said. “While previous initiatives of this kind were presented as efforts to combat terrorism, now they are clearly an act of aggression against a sovereign Syria. Actions undertaken by the US today inflict further damage to the Russia-US relations.
“Without bothering to investigate anything, the US went forward with a demonstration of force, a military confrontation with a country that is fighting international terrorism,” the Foreign Ministry said. “It is obvious that the cruise missile attack was prepared in advance. Any expert understands that Washington’s decision on air strikes predates the Idlib events, which simply served as a pretext for a show of force.
As a result, several Russia-based websites reported that Moscow suspended the air cooperation agreement it struck with Washington, which both countries were using to prevent collisions in the skies over Syria and friendly-fire incidents on the ground. The agreement was based on an October 2015 memorandum between the two countries.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the cruise missile strikes was reminiscent of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. “This reminds us of the 2003 situation, when the US and the UK, along with their allies, intervened in Iraq without approval from the UN Security Council, which was a blatant breach of international law,” Lavrov said.
The Russian military also said it will help Syria beef up its air defenses after the U.S. strike on a Syrian air base.
According to the Associated Press, a “complex of measures” to reinforce air defense will be built to “protect the most sensitive Syrian infrastructure facilities,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Friday.
Konashenkov said, “the combat efficiency of the U.S. strike was very low.” Only 23 of the 59 cruise missiles reached the base, AP reported.