CNN —In the weeks since Bashar al-Assad was ousted as Syrian leader, Russia has launched multiple flights to an airbase in the Libyan desert.
Now the conflict-riven North African nation of Libya is central to Russian efforts to project power into the Mediterranean.
CNN saw imagery of these systems waiting to be flown out of Syria shortly before the Russian flights started.
A Russian Ilyushin Il-76MD plane flies over Moscow during a rehearsal for the Victory Day parade in May 2022.
The flights are not consistent with the previous pattern of Russian Africa Corps rotations to Bamako, it added.
Persons:
Bashar al, Assad, Antonov, Sefa, Hmeimim, Harchaoui, Khadim, Wagner, Khalifa Haftar, Yunus, Bek Yevkurov, Guido Crosetto, ”, Luciano Portolano, ” Harchaoui, Haftar, Ulf Laessing, Konrad Adenauer, Laessing, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, It’s, Ahmed al, Sharaa, ” Laessing, Vladimir Putin
Organizations:
CNN, IL, Royal United Services Institute, Africa –, Central African, American Enterprise, Africa Corps, Maxar, NATO, Italian, Tripoli –, Haftar’s United, Maxar Technologies, Tartus
Locations:
Russia, Libyan, Africa, Libya, Hmeimim, Benghazi, Syria, Russian, Moscow, Anadolu, London, Belarus, Central African Republic, Sudan, Mali, Burkina Faso, al, Bamako, Russian Africa, Tartus, Khadim, Tripoli, Haftar’s United Nations, Tobruk, Ukraine, “ Russia, Turkey, Niger