Assad granted asylum in Moscow on ‘humanitarian’ grounds – as world leaders hail end of ‘barbaric’ regime
Syria’s ousted President Bashar al Assad has arrived in Moscow, Russian state media has confirmed.
Mr Assad and members of his family arrived in the city on Sunday, a Kremlin source told the TASS news agency.
The source added: “Russia, for humanitarian reasons, has granted them asylum.”
Read more: Latest updates from Syria
Mr Assad’s location was confirmed as Russian news agencies said Moscow had struck a deal with Syrian opposition leaders. A source said the rebels have guaranteed the safety of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions in Syria.
Mr Assad left the Syrian capital of Damascus after his government fell following a lightning offensive by anti-regime forces across the country – bringing his 24-year rule to an end.
His whereabouts, as well as those of his wife Asma and their two children, were initially unknown. Russia said Mr Assad had left Syria after negotiations with the rebel groups.
As the former president fled, footage on social media showed families gleefully ransacking presidential palaces in Damascus, with some taking selfies in the grand settings, as thousands celebrated in the streets.
A group of people taking a selfie in a presidential palace in Damascus, Syria. Pic: AP
A Syrian opposition fighter sits inside an office at the Presidential Palace. Pic: AP
People also entered a building near the Damascus palaces, which housed luxury cars thought to belong to the former president.
In videos shared online, people could be seen driving in around inside a garage, past rows of red sports cars and huge 4x4s.
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People enter Syrian presidential palace
Thousands of Syrians, in cars and on foot, also gathered in a main square in the Damascus chanting for freedom.
In the key city of Homs – which rebel fighters seized after just a day of fighting – thousands more filled the streets after the army withdrew, dancing and chanting “Assad is gone, Homs is free”, and “Long live Syria and down with Bashar al Assad”.
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People ride Assad statue through streets
The country’s international airport in Damascus was abandoned, and rebels said they had entered the notorious Saydnaya military prison north of the capital, where human rights groups say thousands of Syrians have been tortured and killed by the Assad regime.
A video circulating online purported to show rebels breaking open cells and freeing dozens of female prisoners, who looked shocked and confused. At least one small child could be seen among them.
Celebratory scenes have also broken out in other countries around the world, with Syrians gathering to mark the historic occasion in cities such as Madrid, Manchester and Tripoli, in northern Lebanon.
The fall of Mr Assad’s regime marks a turning point for Syria after 13 years of civil conflict. It had faced a battle on three fronts – Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) from the north, the Southern Front, and a Kurdish group in the east.
HTS is a Sunni Islamist militant faction, once known as the Nusra Front, which had links to al Qaeda.
It has long been designated a terrorist group by the US. In 2016, it cut its ties with al Qaeda amid an effort to appear moderate.
File pic: AP
A man walks past a broken portrait of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad in the ransacked residence. Pic: AP
Syrian rebels, made up of the various opposition groups, said they were working to transition power to a new governing body with full executive powers.
“The great Syrian revolution has moved from the stage of struggle to overthrow the Assad regime to the struggle to build a Syria together that befits the sacrifices of its people,” the coalition said in a statement, describing events as a new birth for “great Syria”.
Read more:
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HTS leader Abu Mohammed al Jolani, who led the insurgency, declared “the future is ours” in a statement read out on Syrian state TV.
He said there was “no room for turning back” and his group was “determined” to continue on the path it started in 2011.
Abu Mohammad al Jolani speaking at the Great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus
Addressing a crowd inside the sprawling Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, he later described the fall of Assad as a “victory to the Islamic nation”.
“A new history, my brothers, is being written in the entire region after this great victory,” he added.
World leaders react to President Assad’s fall
Russia – which, alongside Iran, helped prop up the Assad regime – has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation in Syria, a Kremlin official posted on Telegram.
Elsewhere, US President Joe Biden labelled Mr Assad’s fall a “fundamental act of justice” but also “a moment of risk”, and Sir Keir Starmer called for all sides to protect civilians and ensure aid reaches the vulnerable.
“The developments in Syria in recent hours and days are unprecedented, and we are speaking to our partners in the region and monitoring the situation closely,” the British PM said.
“The Syrian people have suffered under Assad’s barbaric regime for too long and we welcome his departure. Our focus is now on ensuring a political solution prevails and peace and stability is restored.”
Sir Keir was due to go on to hold talks with leaders in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
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Syrian refugees ‘can’t wait to go back home’
US president-elect Donald Trump said the States should not get involved in the conflict as Syria “is not our friend” in a post on Truth Social.
In a fresh update on Sunday morning – before it was confirmed Mr Assad had been given asylum in Moscow – he added: “Assad is gone. He has fled his country. His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer.
“Russia and Iran are in a weakened state right now, one because of Ukraine and a bad economy, the other because of Israel and its fighting success.”
People step on the Syrian government’s flag outside the Syrian embassy in Madrid. Pic: Reuters
Israeli airstrikes hit Damascus, according to reports
Israel has conducted three airstrikes against a major security complex in Damascus, two regional security sources have told Reuters.
The IDF has also targeted a research centre in the Syrian capital, they said. According to Israel, the centre was used by Iranian scientists to develop missiles.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had hailed the ousting of Mr Assad as a “historic day”.
On a visit to the area near the border with Syria, he said he had ordered Israeli forces to seize a buffer zone in the Golan Heights, adding: “We will not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our border.”
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Mr Netanyahu said this was necessary to “ensure the protection of all Israeli communities in the Golan Heights” after Syrian soldiers abandoned their positions there.
The Golan area was captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, and later annexed. The international community, except the US, views it as occupied territory.
A group of school children in their smart uniforms skip past us, overseen by their mums and dads.
In front of us, the highway is empty of all cars except for two armoured police vehicles slowly making their way up a hill.
The children and their parents are on “Airport Road”, which leads into the centre of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. The airport is a few miles away to the north.
The parents are leading the children to an intersection where they will turn right towards their homes.
Police use heavily-armoured vehicles to patrol in Port-au-Prince
Everything beyond that intersection is gang territory, and nobody ventures past it but the police, who appear to be probing the gangs’ defences.
This part of the Airport Road, beyond the intersection and stretching for miles, is an area controlled by the gangster Jimmy Cherizier, known here and abroad as “Barbecue”.
The security forces are desperate to capture Barbecue, himself a former policeman, and to dismantle his gang.
A boy sleeps at the bottom of a staircase inside a displacement camp
As the families near the intersection, automatic gunfire bursts from the turret of one of the armoured police vehicles. Instantly the children and their parents run for safety, hugging a wall – they know what is about to happen.
Within seconds the police are being attacked with volleys of machine gun fire. We watch holding our breaths, and thankfully all the children make it round the corner to the relative safety of a side street.
They live on the edge of what’s called the “red zone” where the gangs control the streets.
Security forces want to take it back.
Getting out of the cars would be suicide for police officers
The first armoured police vehicle makes it into Barbecue’s territory unscathed, but the second vehicle is hit.
One of its tyres is punctured, so they have no choice but to turn back.
The firing intensifies as the police vehicle makes its way down the hill, and we can hear the crack of bullets as the gangs target the police.
My team and I are travelling in two separate armoured 4x4s. The police are the targets, and we are filming their exchanges with gang members hidden up the hill and in side streets, firing from multiple positions.
As the police vehicle nears the intersection once again, it comes under sustained fire.
At this point the streets and the intersection are completely empty of people and traffic, anyone in the vicinity has taken cover.
A stray round passes uncomfortably close by our team still outside the vehicles, so we decide it’s time to go, and reverse as the armoured police vehicle loses its tyre, rolling forward on its rim.
Children caught in the crossfire in Port-au-Prince
Getting out would be suicidal for the police. The vehicle limps towards another crossroads to get away from the firing.
This, I’m told, is just an ordinary day in Port-au-Prince.
Nobody can fully agree on a number, but by most estimates, the gangs control around 90% of Port-au-Prince now. People don’t venture into their areas, and cars turn away from the boundaries to avoid being hit by sniper fire from inside or being caught in the crossfire.
Barbara Gashiwi and baby Jenna
Hundreds of thousands of Haitians have lost their homes, and many now find themselves in heaving makeshift displacement camps. They huddle for protection, but in reality there really isn’t much on offer.
In a narrow alleyway in a camp set up in the grounds of a church, I meet Barbara Gashiwi, a new mum. She gave birth to her daughter Jenna a month ago, beneath the plastic sheets where she still sits.
Barbara was forced out of her home by the gangs days before she was due to give birth.
Barbara Gashiwi tells Sky News she doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to go home
“They pulled guns on us and told us to give up the house, after that we ran outside on to the street and took off,” she told me.
She says she doesn’t think she will ever go back to her home again. Very few of the 10,500 people living in this one displacement camp believe they will ever go home.
The gang warfare has left some Port-au-Prince streets completely derelict
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
A year ago, we visited displaced Haitians living inside the government’s communication ministry.
At the time we walked in off the street, but this time we could barely move for the crowds – the forecourt is now a camp too, and the difference is stark.
The government has abandoned this and other ministries, moving higher up to safer ground, leaving whole communities on their own.
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March 2024: Thousands flee Haiti violence
The gangs’ lawless, and often murderous, activity means that the roughly 10% of Port-au-Prince still free is packed with people and traffic.
Just a few districts in Port-au-Prince are left, and they’re completed surrounded, leaving the people who live in this city squeezed into the only places that haven’t fallen.
The few free districts in the capital are packed with people and traffic
It’s hard to describe the claustrophobia and tension that pervades life here.
And with everything else happening in the world right now, the people of Haiti feel they’ve been abandoned, and are condemned to live their lives under the rule of the gun.
Stuart Ramsay reports from Haiti with camera operator Toby Nash, senior foreign producer Dominique Van Heerden, and producers Brunelie Joseph and David Montgomery.
Donald Trump has said there is a “good chance” of peace between Russia and Ukraine – but added the US has a red line in upcoming talks.
After a two-hour phone call with Vladimir Putin, the US president announced on Monday that Russia–Ukraine discussions will begin “immediately”.
It is unclear how these will differ from negotiations that already started in Turkey last Friday.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office later on Monday, Mr Trump said he does have a red line on when he’ll stop pushing Moscow and Kyiv for peace – but would not say what it is.
There are “big egos involved”, he said before adding: “This was a European situation, it should have remained a European situation.”
The US president also claimed he asked Mr Putin on their call: “When are we going to end this bloodbath?”
He said of the Russian president: “I do believe he wants to end [the war].”
“My whole life is deals, one big deal, and if I thought that President Putin did not want to get this over with, I wouldn’t even be talking about it because I’d just pull out,” he added.
The US president spoke to his Russian counterpart on Monday as part of a bid to push the two countries towards agreeing a truce in the war.
Donald Trump speaking in the Oval Office on Monday. Pic: AP
In a Truth Social post, published shortly after the call, Mr Trump said Russia and Ukraine “will immediately start negotiations towards a ceasefire and, more importantly, an end to the war”.
Mr Trump continued: “Russia wants to do large-scale trade with the United States when this catastrophic ‘bloodbath’ is over, and I agree.
“There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth. Its potential is unlimited.”
Vladimir Putin at a meeting in Moscow last week. Pic: AP
Ukraine “can be a great beneficiary on trade, in the process of rebuilding its country”, he said.
The Vatican “has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations”, Mr Trump added. He signed off his post with: “Let the process begin!”
Mr Putin found the call “informative, frank and very useful”, Russian news agency RIA reported.
“A ceasefire in the situation in Ukraine for a certain period of time is possible if appropriate agreements are reached,” the Russian leader reportedly said.
Discussions are ‘positive,’ says Zelenskyy
The US president spoke separately to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and various European leaders.
At a briefing after the day’s calls had taken place, Ukraine’s leader said he told Mr Trump that Russia “might propose some particularly difficult conditions” for a ceasefire – which could be “a sign that it is the Russian side that is unwilling to end the war”.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to reporters after his own call with Mr Trump. Pic: Reuters
“I think we are still discussing the very possibility of strong and severe sanctions [on Russia],” he continued. “I don’t yet have an answer to that question.”
Kyiv is considering the possibility of a meeting between “high-level” teams from Ukraine, the US, Russia and some European countries, Mr Zelenskyy said, describing the talks on Monday as “positive”.
He continued: “Such a meeting could take place in Turkey, the Vatican, or Switzerland. We are currently considering these three venues, as all three countries – all three venues – are neutral.”
European leaders and Ukraine have demanded Russia agree to a ceasefire immediately, and Mr Trump has focused on getting Mr Putin to commit to a 30-day truce. The Russian president has resisted that, insisting that conditions be met first.
The Trump-Putin call came as Russia has continued to target Ukraine with attacks.
Moscow on Monday claimed its forces have taken two villages in Ukraine, according to state news agency RIA.
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Russia recently began pushing into the Sumy region after claiming it had ousted Kyiv’s forces from Russia’s neighbouring Kursk region.
RIA cited the defence ministry as saying Novoolenivka, in the eastern Donetsk region, and Marine, in Sumy, have now been taken by Russian forces.
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Russia launches war’s largest drone attack
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 112 drones over various parts of the country overnight, killing two people and leaving another 13 injured.
On Sunday, Kyiv officials said Russia had launched the largest drone attack of the war so far by firing 273 explosives into Ukraine over the course of Saturday night into the following morning.
Israel has said it will allow a “basic quantity of food” into the besieged enclave of Gaza to avoid a “starvation crisis” following a near three-month blockade.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the decision was “based on the operational need to enable the expansion of the military operation to defeat Hamas“.
Gaza, where local authorities say more than 53,000 people have died in Israel’s 19-month campaign, has been under a complete blockade on humanitarian aid since 2 March.
It comes as global food security experts warn of famine across the territory and after a UN-backed report from last Monday which warned one in five people in Gaza were facing starvation.
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Israel ramps up bombing in Gaza
The statement from the prime minister’s office said it would “allow a basic quantity of food to be brought in for the population in order to make certain that no starvation crisis develops in the Gaza Strip”.
“Such a crisis would endanger the continuation of Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ to defeat Hamas,” it added.
“Israel will act to deny Hamas’s ability to take control of the distribution of humanitarian assistance in order to ensure that the assistance does not reach the Hamas terrorists.”
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Gaza is ‘a slaughterhouse’ says surgeon
It comes after a British surgeon working in Gaza said in a video to Sky News the enclave is now “a slaughterhouse” amid Israeli bombardment.
Israel has just ramped up its offensive in Gaza – where it’s been conducting a military campaign in retaliation for 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage by Hamas on 7 October 2023 – with Palestinian health officials reporting at least 130 people were killed overnight into Sunday.
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed troops had begun “extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip”.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 464 people had died in Israeli military strikes in the week to Sunday.
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In a statement on Sunday, IDF said its air force struck “over 670 Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip to disrupt enemy preparations and support ground operations” over the past week.
Israel has launched an escalation to increase pressure on Hamas, seize territory, displace Palestinians to the south and take greater control over the distribution of aid.
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