Putin will try to take revenge for Assad’s fall, so Ukraine needs help - Zelenskyy
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized that by helping Ukraine fight against the Russian dictatorship, the international community is helping many other regions of the world restore security.
The head of state said this on Telegram, Censor.NET reports.
"Brave" Assad fled to Putin. Where will Putin run to? This year's Human Rights Day is accompanied by horrific photos of Syrian prisons and torture chambers that were opened after Assad's escape. People have been humiliated there for many years. Men and women. They were beaten, tortured, raped. Thousands and thousands of people went through this factory of violence," the statement said.
Zelenskyy noted that the Assad regime has been based solely on violence for decades. And this is exactly what all regimes supported by Putin are like.
"We have seen the same prisons, torture chambers, indescribable violence, humiliation, beatings, torture, rape and other crimes on our territory in every settlement that was occupied by Russian invaders. Russia is a prison state that can only hold someone else's stolen land because of the prisons and torture chambers it places there.
Since the beginning of the Russian occupation, repression and torture have always followed the tanks. We first saw this on our soil in Crimea in 2014, when the Russian occupation led to the repression of an indigenous people, Ukraine's largest Muslim community, the Crimean Tatars, as well as journalists and political activists. Russia then continued its horrific human rights violations in the occupied Donbas, including the notorious Izolyatsia prison. Since February 2022, Russia has extended these practices to all other occupied territories. The atrocities have increased in scale and cruelty.
That is why we, Ukrainians, are so moved when we see Syrians coming out of Assad's prisons and torture chambers," the head of state emphasized.
Zelenskyy called Putin and Assad accomplices in the violence.
"Dictators like Assad cannot survive without dictators like Putin. And Putin will try to avenge Assad's fall. That is why we need unity and strength to stand up to regimes that sow only humiliation and leave behind only suffering, pain and ruin. By helping Ukraine fight against the Russian dictatorship, the international community is helping many other regions of the world to restore security and achieve protection from violence.
There must be punishment for horrific atrocities and human rights violations. In reality, only Putin and Assad deserve to be in jail, not the innocent people they have imprisoned for years," he concluded.
Events in Syria
On November 28, after four years of relative calm, fighting between Bashar al-Assad's forces and opposition groups resumed with renewed vigor on the outskirts of Aleppo.
"Hayat Tahrir al-Sham announced a large-scale military operation against government forces. During the operation, they claimed to have captured over 400 square kilometers of territory, including strategically important areas.
November 29 Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which leads a coalition of opposition forces in Syria, enters Aleppo and clashes with government forces on the western outskirts of the city.
On November 30, the Syrian Armed Forces announced a "temporary withdrawal of troops" from Aleppo to prepare a counteroffensive against the opposition forces.
According to Al Arabia, rebels in Syria have taken control of Aleppo.
Newly elected US President Donald Trump said that the US should not interfere in the conflict in Syria.
Bloomberg wrote that as the rebels approached Damascus, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad decided to resort to indirect diplomatic appeals to the United States and President-elect Donald Trump to try to stay in power.
On December 8, it became known that the Syrian opposition had taken Damascus and announced Assad's escape.
