Russia pulled its troops and equipment on Tuesday from an airport in northeast Syria, with reports saying the site was stripped of Russian flags and aircraft that had been visible a day earlier.
The departure comes as the terrorist PKK's Syrian offshoot, YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who once controlled swathes of territory in the country's north and east, have withdrawn in the face of military pressure, as the country's new authorities seek to extend control across the country.
Russian forces, which backed dictator Bashar Assad until his ouster in 2024, took over the Qamishli airport as a military base in November 2019 following a large-scale Turkish counterterrorism operation against the YPG.
A Syrian military official in Hassakeh province in the country's northeast told AFP that "Russian forces are withdrawing heavy equipment and weapons from Qamishli airport via aircraft to the Hemeimeem base," Russia's airbase on the Mediterranean coast.
An AFP correspondent saw a cargo plane bearing the Russian flag taking off from the airport in the city earlier on Tuesday.
"The last Russian plane has departed," a member of the YPG-led SDF guarding the facility told AFP.
The correspondent on Monday had seen Russian flags, cargo, helicopters and equipment such as radars inside the base, all of which were absent the following day.
YPG and the Syrian government did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment.
In 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would withdraw U.S. troops from northeastern Syria.
The YPG then started talks with Assad and his main ally, Russia, which subsequently began to conduct patrols in the area and acted as a buffer between the YPG and Turkish forces.
Both Russia and Syria's new authorities have been looking to reset ties, and Moscow is particularly keen to build good relations with Damascus to secure agreements over the Hemeimeem airbase and the Tartus naval base on the Mediterranean coast – its only official military outposts outside the former Soviet Union.
The YPG is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK terrorist group, which has waged a decadeslong campaign that killed over 40,000 people in Türkiye, Syria and Iraq. The YPG is allied with the U.S. under the pretext of fighting Daesh remnants in the region and controls oil-rich cities in the northeast.
Earlier in January, clashes that broke out between the YPG and government forces ended with a fragile cease-fire deal announced on Jan. 18, and government forces regained large areas occupied by the YPG. The deal stipulates the YPG’s integration into the Syrian army, the return of oil wells and camps holding Daesh detainees.
The YPG had previously failed to implement a March 10, 2025, agreement with the government that called for equal rights for the Kurdish component and the integration of civil and military institutions into the state, insisting on decentralized rule and its self-styled autonomy in the northeast. Damascus has since issued a special decree guaranteeing the cultural, linguistic and civil rights of Kurdish Syrians.
