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Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, Syrian media reported Monday.
Neither Syrian nor Russian authorities have issued official statements, and no details of the planned visit were immediately available.
Sharaa last met Putin in Moscow on Oct. 15, marking his first trip to Russia since assuming office following the ouster of former President Bashar al-Assad in late 2024.
Assad, who ruled Syria for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia on Dec. 8, 2024, ending the Baath Party’s decadeslong grip on power that began in 1963.
The reported visit comes as Russia is withdrawing forces from an airport in northeastern Syria, moving to end its military presence in that part of the country, according to a Reuters report Monday.
Russia has maintained a deployment at Qamishli airport since 2019. The contingent is small compared with Russia’s main air base at Hmeimim and a naval facility on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, both of which Moscow is expected to retain.
Two sources told Reuters that Russian forces began a gradual withdrawal from Qamishli airport last week. Some personnel are expected to redeploy to the Hmeimim air base in western Syria, while others are set to return to Russia.
A Syrian security source on the western coast said Russian military vehicles and heavy weaponry had been transported from Qamishli to Hmeimim over the past two days.
Russia’s Defense Ministry did not immediately comment.
Sharaa announced in January a ceasefire and an agreement for the full integration of the YPG/SDF into state institutions.
Syrian Army forces later carried out operations in northeastern Syria after the SDF failed to comply with provisions of the ceasefire agreement. Under the deal, the group was required to withdraw military formations east of the Euphrates River and hand over administrative and security control of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor provinces to the central government.
On Saturday, the Syrian government extended a ceasefire with the SDF by 15 days.
The agreement also stipulates that all border crossings and energy resources be placed under central government authority, with SDF personnel to be individually integrated into the Syrian Defense and Interior Ministries following vetting.
The Defense Ministry on Tuesday announced a four-day ceasefire with the SDF “in line with the understandings announced by the Syrian state with the SDF” and “out of keenness to ensure the success of the national efforts being made.”
The SDF is dominated by the YPG, the Syrian branch of the PKK terrorist group. The PKK is classified as an ethno-nationalist and separatist terrorist organization by the EU’s law enforcement agency, Europol.
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