EXCLUSIVE: First picture 'proof' that Russia has troops on the ground all over Syria helping dictator Bashar Al-Assad - and they've been there since APRIL
Images showing Russians troops in Syria posted on social media accounts
Some have been taken at Russia's small naval facility in Tartus, Syria
But forces seen at other locations and pictures have been taken since April
Pregnant woman complained on social media that her Russian marine husband is being deployed to the country for 'three to eight months'
Pictures will infuriate Western leaders in the face of official Russian denials
ByWill Stewart for MailOnline
Published: 11:08 GMT, 8 September 2015 | Updated: 11:47 GMT, 8 September 2015
These revealing pictures apparently show how Russian troops are already on the ground in Syria as Vladimir Putin allegedly defies the West.
The images showing boots on the ground were originally posted on social media accounts of military personnel, but some were then hastily withdrawn once they began being noticed.
The shocking pictures will be seen as proof that despite official denials from the Russian president Vladimir Putin, he has deployed increasing numbers of troops to help prop up the regime of Syrian premier Bashar Al-Assad.
The pictures will infuriate western leaders who have called for the removal of Assad during the four-year civil war that has devastated the country, forced four million people to flee their homes and led to the terrifying rise of ISIS.
Until recently, this facility was guarded by as few as four Russian military personnel it has been claimed, in stark contrast to the numbers now visible.
One picture posted this week by 19-year-old Ivan Strebkov - who serves in the Alexander Nevsky Marine Brigade, based in Baltiysk on Russia's Baltic coast - shows four heavily armed troops at Russia's small but longstanding Tartus naval facility in Syria.
However, the Russian forces are also seen at other locations in the war-torn country, and the pictures have been taken since April, suggesting a gradual build up.
Another image shows nine Russian soldiers around a fire in a blitzed building in Homs, some 60 miles east of the Tartus naval port.
A picture posted by Alexei Khabarov shows a Russian soldier in Arab headgear at Hama, 90 miles from Tartus.
An image posted by Sergei Alexandrov taken on July 27 appears to show a Russian soldier in a trench in Halab - or Aleppo - in war-ravaged northern Syria, 150 miles from Tartus.
Another posted by Sergei Boroda last month shows a bearded fighter in a military encampment in al-Soda - also known as al-Sawda - around ten miles northeast of Tartus.
An photograph posted by Nikoli Kazakov shows soldiers apparently arriving in Syria in April, long before recent concern that led US Secretary of State John Kerry to challenge his U.S. opposite number Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov over the Russian troops in Syria.
An undated image highlights two Russian soldiers posing beside a poster of presidents Assad and Putin.
And a pregnant Russian woman appeared to have let the cat out of the bag when she complained on social media that her husband, a marine in Putin's armed forces, has been deployed to Syria.
While Russia has long supplied weaponry to Damascus, a Cold War ally, the naval resupply facility of Tartus is not designated a military base and Moscow has not previously had a significant military presence in Syria.
Despite this, there are claims of a rising number of visits to Tartus from the Nikolai Filchenkov - a large assault landing ship - and other Russian naval vessels.
The vessel was pictured on September 2 and is believed to be carrying equipment from the 810th non-divisional marine brigade, based in Sevastopol in Crimea. One marine from the 810th posted his social media status as: 'Gone to Syria'.
The collection of images have been seized on by critics to claim that Putin has taken a major decision to boost his military presence in Syria in support of the country's autocratic president Assad.
The photographs suggest serving Russian forces have been in Syria since April at least.
Blogger Nikolay Makhno gathered together a collection of pictures from the social media accounts of alleged serving Russian soldiers.
'The Russian president's press-secretary Dmitry Peskov has denied the reports of Western media about the participation of Russian army in fighting in Syria,' he said.
'At the same time, photographs of Russian soldiers prove that they keep arriving to fight for Assad.
'Not just 'instructors' are going there - but entire groups of special forces and marines.
'The majority of them are coming via Tartus, but they can also be seen in Homs, Latakia, Damask, Ail As-Soda, Salamia, Ham.
'Some army units are serving in Syria for four-to-six months, and sometimes they mask themselves like Arabs.'
The blogger from Kiev likened the build-up to the deployment of Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, which was resolutely denied by Moscow
'The families of Russian soldiers will try to find out where their husbands are spending their holidays - in Ukraine or in Syria,' he wrote.
The images do not prove Russians are directly involved in fighting but suggest Putin's troops are on the ground in a number of locations in Syria.
Separately, a video from Syria supposedly filmed on August 23 during the battle of the port of Latakia shows an ultramodern Russian-made infantry combat vehicle 82A with an 2A72 30mm cannon.
There are claims Russian speech is heard in the video. The vehicle is painted in colours and there is an identification number in Russian style.
Claims today made by independent radio station Echo Moscow say the following shouts were heard in Russian: 'Let's do! Throw it! Do it again! Let's do it again!'
The report concluded that the 'Russian speaking crew' deployed in a new and 'rare' combat vehicle was seeking to prevent Latakia falling to Assad's foes.
'In March, Assad has lost Idlib, in April - Jisr Shughur, and Latakia is a strategic fort, the biggest port in Syria,' stated the report.
'The international airport is there which is also a military base. If Assad loses Latakia, he will soon lose the control of this aviation base, and Tartus is not far from there.'
Recently there were reports citing anonymous U.S. intelligence officials stating Russia has set up an air traffic control tower and transported prefabricated housing units for as many as 1,000 personnel to an airfield serving Latakia.
In the pictures, one soldier called Fedor Shmatko was pictured in April serving in Syria. But later he changed his social media account name to Denis Smoldyrev, deleting pictures linked to Syria.
Another wielding a Kalashnikov, called Nikita Saveliev, has since deleted his account on Vkontakte, a Russian social media network.
If Putin is engaged in a covert build up, as happened in Ukraine, according to the West, it could backfire, say Moscow experts.
'After the Soviet operation in Afghanistan, our public opinion has certain prejudices against sending troops to fight for ideals that are foreign to us,' Nikolai Kozhanov, of the Moscow Carnegie Centre, told The Moscow Times today.
Kerry expressed fears about an 'enhanced Russian buildup' in Syria.
'The Russian side has never concealed the fact that it is sending military equipment to the Syrian authorities to help them fight terrorism,' retorted Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
Putin said recently it was premature to talk about Russia taking part in military operations against the Islamic State jihadist group.
And earlier this month, Putin claimed Assad is ready to hold snap parliamentary elections and could share power with a 'healthy' opposition.
'We really want to create some kind of an international coalition to fight terrorism and extremism,' Putin told journalists on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum last week, saying he had spoken to U.S. President Barack Obama on the matter.
'We are also working with our partners in Syria. In general, the understanding is that this uniting of efforts in fighting terrorism should go in parallel to some political process in Syria itself,' Putin said.
'And the Syrian president agrees with that, all the way down to holding early elections, let's say, parliamentary ones, establishing contacts with the so-called healthy opposition, bringing them into governing,' he said.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3226009/First-picture-proof-Russia-troops-ground-Syria-helping-dictator-Bashar-Al-Assad-ve-APRIL.html#ixzz3lANav7SS
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