“Since 2015, when towns and villages gradually started to be freed, more than one million people have returned home,” Sergei Shoigu said in comments reported by Russian news agencies, according to AFP.
“Now every opportunity has been created for the return of roughly one million (more) refugees,” he told journalists.
“Huge infrastructure reconstruction work is ongoing, the rebuilding of transport routes and security points so that Syria can begin accepting refugees.”
Russia intervened in Syria’s civil war in 2015 in support of Bashar al-Assad. Its military support proved to be a game-changer, helping regime forces retake almost every part of the country from ISIS and opposition groups.
Idlib remains the last province in rebel hands. The Kurdish provinces of northern Syria and parts of oil-rich Deir ez-Zor meanwhile are held by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). ISIS remnants maintain desert holdouts near the Iraqi border. Turkey controls pockets of territory along its border, including the Kurdish canton of Afrin, and outposts in Idlib.
Almost half of Syria’s pre-war population has been displaced, provoking the biggest refugee crisis since World War II. More than 350,000 people have been killed since the 2011 uprising.
The UN has warned nations hosting Syrian refugees not to force them to return against their will, fearing the volatile security situation could leave them vulnerable to attack or repression.
In exchange for its military assistance, Russia has been able to establish a significant naval presence on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.
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