VLADIVOSTOK, September 10. /TASS/. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Kremlin does not have any information concerning the start of the offensive in Syria’s Idlib province.
"[We have] no such information," he said in reply to the question about whether the Russian and Syrian governments have coordinated the date of the offensive in Idlib.
Idlib is the only large region in Syria still in the hands of paramilitary groupings. The northern zone of de-escalation was established in 2017 as an escape for the militants, who had refused to accept reconciliation and to lay down arms voluntarily, and for their families.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported on August 25 that militants in Idlib enjoying active assistance from British intelligence agencies were laying the groundwork for staging a faked chemical attack against civilians to be blamed on government forces. The provocation is to serve as a pretext for a missile strike by the United States, Britain and France against Syria’s government and economic facilities.