In Syria, on the one hand, there is clear progress. For example, our Reconciliation Center signed a ceasefire agreement with the whole Latakia Governorate. At this level, nothing like this has happened before. The territory of Syria still controlled by terrorists is also becoming smaller.
On the other hand, Americans are in a hurry not to be late to the time when the post-war fate of Syria as a whole will be determined, and it seems that they are gearing up for the country's division. Anyway, they freely interpret the security zones created in the country. Last Sunday, without any warning, an F-18A fighter of the US Air Force shot down a Syrian Su-22 aircraft that bombed ISIS 40 kilometers southwest of Raqqa, in the Rasafeh area. The pilot catapulted but landed in the territory controlled by terrorists. The fate of the pilot is still unknown. Russia didn't like this aggressive highhandedness very much.
On Monday, our Ministry of Defence tore up the Russian-American memorandum on the prevention of incidents in the air. Moreover, from now on, any military objects of the international coalition in the Syrian skies, both planes and drones, to the west of the Euphrates River will be followed by our air defenses as air targets. In practice, this means a no-fly zone for Americans west of the Euphrates.
The USA interpreted our warning as the fact that their planes could be simply shot down. On Tuesday, Sergey Lavrov said that it's becoming very crowded both on the ground and in the air in Syria. Indeed, it's becoming very crowded both on the ground and in the air. There are many participants in the fighting. There are Syrian armed forces and forces that are called pro-governmental, including Hezbollah, and forces supported by the Iranians.
There is also an armed opposition, there are terrorists, there is also the Turkish military, as you know, special forces of a number of Western countries and the countries of the region, there is also aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces and the coalition led by the United States. According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, we all need to be honest in Syria, otherwise, there will be chaos. Russia definitely doesn’t need this. If we're all honest, if we all follow the goal of fighting terrorism, then we have every reason to prevent the situation from sliding into chaos and unpredictable incidents.
