This is a recurring “accusation” from Moscow, for weeks, even months: Kyiv would have provided drones to the Islamist rebels of HTS to bring down the Syrian regime, and weaken its Russian ally at the same time. This collaboration between Ukraine and the Syrian opponents (since victorious) was recently denied by EUvsDisinfo, a cell attached to the diplomatic service of the European Union and in charge of the fight against disinformation – especially coming from Moscow.
In several articles published on December 7 and 8 (this one, this one and this one), EUvsDisinfo stated thus “Accusations that Ukraine played a decisive role in supporting terrorism in Syria are part of Russia's disinformation campaigns to damage Ukraine's international reputation.”
But a few days later, the Washington Post came to contradict these denials. In the opinion pages of the American daily, international columnist David Ignatius cites “sources familiar with Ukrainian military activities abroad” who reports that “Ukrainian intelligence sent around 20 experienced drone operators and around 150 FPV drones to the rebel headquarters in Idlib, Syria, to assist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.” While immediately specifying that “Kyiv's aid played only a modest role in the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, Western intelligence sources believe.”
Ukrainian drone pilots in Syria?
In reality, talk of Kyiv collaborating with HTS goes back several months. In June, an article in the Kyiv Post already cited a source in Ukrainian military intelligence who reported that Ukrainian agents had been striking Russian targets in Syria since the beginning of the year, in collaboration with “the Syrian opposition”. Generally speaking, Ukraine does not officially recognize its external involvement against Russia (in Syria or elsewhere), but does not deny it either. Even sometimes suggests it.
The presence of Ukrainian drone fighters in Syria, alongside anti-regime Islamist forces, was also mentioned earlier in the year in the Kremlin's information sphere. Russian state news outlets had already picked up the (fuzzy) assertion, shared in September by the Turkish newspaper Aydinlik which itself referred to a Kurdish site, according to which a Ukrainian delegation had met members of HTS in June, giving them 75 FPV drones in a deal. HTS then, notably to the Syrian media Levant24, denied any involvement with Ukrainian intelligence.
Later, on November 14, as reported by various Russian agencies, the Russian special representative in Syria, Alexander Lavrentyev, stated that “Ukrainians supply drones to Idlib, training terrorists to use and build them themselves Articles explicitly mentioning FPV drones. Equipped with four rotors, carrying an explosive charge and directed by an operator equipped with a mask linked by radio waves, these weapons have become central in the fighting in Ukraine since the Russian invasion of 2022.
“A flood of articles”
The use of FPV drones in Syria by the Syrian army has also been documented. An Al-Jazeera article, published in February, recounted the development of this technique on the side of the regime's army, with the support of Iran and Russia, and including against civilians.
But since the start of the lightning offensive of the rebel factions, Samuel Bendett, a specialist in Russian technological developments, formulated on X on December 7 the hypothesis that if “the Syrian army has indeed used tactical drones and FPVs in previous months, the opposition may have done so on a larger scale and at greater speed than [les forces de Bachar Al-Assad]». This resurgence is also visible in numerous videos of recent strikes, such as here or here.
Asked by CheckNews on the elements partially contradicting its articles on the subject, EUvsDisinfo responds that it does not claim to be exhaustive, and explains that it has “observed a flood of articles and documents aimed at advancing a narrative suggesting that Ukraine's military support played a decisive role in the fall of the Al-Assad regime in recent days.” This European diplomatic service therefore continues to deem false, without formally denying possible aid from Kyiv to the rebels.
