After 5 years of war: from Western Kurdistan to Damascus

Russia will withdraw the main part of it's forces from Syria starting March 15. The announcement came five years since the war started in Syria

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A view of the Citadel from the old city of Aleppo

Shepherds with a flock of sheep on a road to Aleppo

Destroyed apartment blocks and a bus used as a barricade in Aleppo

A burnt out car wreckage on a road to Aleppo

People queue to buy petrol, Aleppo

Boys fill containers with drinking water from a tank in Aleppo

A girl has her hair done at a hairdresser's in Salah al-Din, Aleppo

People walking past piles of rubble and partially destroyed buildings in Salah al-Din, Aleppo

Kurds in Aleppo's Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood

Kurdish militia members in Aleppo's Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood

Kurdish soldier sitting beneath portraits at a memorial to fellow soldiers who have been killed in the Syrian Civil War, in the Sheikh Maksoud neighbourhood of Aleppo

A man wounded in a mortar attack on Aleppo

On the way from Aleppo to Afrin

Syrian Kurdistan edge between Aleppo and Afrin

Kurdish women in the town of Afrin

Local man in a village by a wall that is being built along the Syrian-Turkish border

Armed Kurdish fighters near the Syrian-Turkish border

Olive trees near the town of Afrin

Soldiers of Jaysh al-Thuwar, or the Army of Revolutionaries, an armed rebel group allied with YPG and taking part in the Syrian Civil War,near the town of Azaz

A Kurdish fighter surveying the area from an elevation near the town of Azaz on the Syrian-Turkish border

An armed Kurdish fighter near the Syrian-Turkish border. The message reads: APO (in reference to Abdullah Ocalan), YPG YPJ (acronyms for the People's Protection Units and the Women's Protection Units), HPX (acronym for Kurdish self defense)

Children in a Damascus neighborhood, an area liberated when a ceasefire agreement between the Syrian Army and the rebels controlling the district came into effect on February 27, 2016

Civilians at a check point they have to cross to enter the Qadam neighborhood of Damascus

Al-Dohanya neighborhood, Damascus

On March 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to start withdrawing the main part of Russia’s forces from Syria. Russia will leave an air flight control center in the Syrian territory that will monitor the observation of the Syrian ceasefire. A look at the country and its residents after the five-year civil war - in this photo gallery by TASS.