The Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said that Bashar al-Assad being toppled proves that “Russia and its allies can be defeated.”
On Sunday Rebel forces said on TV that Assad has been ousted after 13-years of brutal conflict and he fled by plane to Moscow, Russia.
Assad and his British wife Asma and the family fled to Moscow on Sunday and Putin has granted them asylum, TASS reports.
Moscow said that Assad left Damascus after negotiating with the rebel group and the Russian Foreign Ministry is watching what is happening in Syria with “extreme concern.”
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Assad negotiated with a “number of participants in the conflict” and he gave “instructions to transfer power peacefully,” the Russian ministry said.
Tusk drew parallels to the war in Ukraine, he wrote on X, “The events in Syria have made the world realise once again, or at least they should, that even the most cruel regime may fall and that Russia and its allies can be defeated.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said, “Assad has fallen. This is how it has always been and will always be for dictators who bet on Putin. He always betrays those who rely on him,” the Kyiv Post reports.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the fall of the Assad regime should be seen as caution for Vladimir Putin.
President Zelensky said that the fall of Damascus as Assad was sold out by Iran and Russia as he placed too much faith in Putin.
European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas has said that the fall of the Syrian dictator has exposed just how weak Russia and Iran are.
On Sunday Syrian rebels toppled the brutal Assad regime ending 24-years of him being in power and end’s the Assad’s family rule after a total of 54-years.
Kallas said that Assad being toppled is a “positive and long-awaited development,” adding the collapse of the regime “shows the weakness of Assad’s backers, Russia and Iran.”
Russia has been a long supported of the Assad regime and Vladimir Putin was given the Tartus Naval Base and the Khmeimim Air Base.
