Did Ukraine special forces strike Russia forces at a Syrian airbase?

Russian forces in Syria have been targeted by Ukrainian special forces, according to reports, in what has been described as a "devastating attack" on Moscow's overseas interests.

The Kyiv Post reported that Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate launched a special operation on the Kuweires airbase in Aleppo province, northwestern Syria, where the Russian military has been present since its intervention in 2015.

One video shared by the Ukrainian news site shows a military vehicle, reportedly Russian, in a desert environment being targeted by a projectile.

The New Arab could not verify the location of the video, but The Kyiv Post said it showed a Ukrainian special forces attack on a Russian mobile electronic warfare vehicle in the area.

Other videos showed other Ukrainian attacks on the Kuweires Military Aviation Institute, an airbase that was besieged for several years by the Islamic State group until Russian-backed Syrian special forces won the area back to regime control.

The attack took place a day after Syrian President Bashar Al-Assaad and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on 24 July, the Ukrainian news site added.

Suheil Al-Ghazi, a Syrian researcher told The New Arab, said that while Kuweires has been used by Russian helicopters operating in northern Syria, Ukrainian claims that it is also a logistics point for Moscow's overseas mercenary activities is probably not true as the facility is unable to handle large aircraft.

Other footage showed drones being launched, allegedly operated by Ukrainian special forces, to target Russian personnel in Syria, thousands away from the frontlines in eastern Ukraine.

"The claim that it serves as recruiting point for mercenaries doesn't make sense because such activities are done in Hmeimim airbase," he told The New Arab.

"The Russian presence there means it must be equipped with a radar like Hmeimim airbase but it looks like it didn't work against this drone now despite Hmeimim being able to thwart several drone attacks even before 2022.

"The death of two pilots indicates the drone either hit their vehicle or their aircraft while on the tarmac... so it's also an intelligence failure for both the regime and Russia," Al Ghazi added.

Last year, Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian intelligence unit (known by the abbreviations HUR) promised to "destroy Russian war criminals anywhere in the world they may be".

There have since been claims of Ukrainian attacks on Russian interests in Syria and Africa, part of Kyiv's aim of widening the war with Moscow beyond its own borders.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which has seen both sides locked in a grinding and bloody stalemate since, with little movement on the frontlines in recent months.

Putin intervened in the Syria war in 2015, four years after an uprising against Bashar Al-Assad saw his regime lose swathes of Syrian territory to the opposition, Islamic State group, and Kurdish forces.

Russian airpower, hardware and expertise has helped Assad win back much of the lost territory, but at a heavy cost for civilian life with thousands killed in waves of regime and Russian airstrikes.