Russia’s Pytliviy warship set sail for Syria coast

The ship set sail from the Crimean Peninsula’s port of Sevastopol on Wednesday and is headed towards the Mediterranean Sea where it will join its counterparts in guarding Russian bases in the region.
 
On March 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial military pull-out from Syria; however forces remain at the Hmeimim airbase in Latakia and at the Tartus naval base to help maintain a Moscow-Washington brokered ceasefire.
 
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry has announced that it will temporally suspend its air strikes against terrorists in Syria following a request by several groups who are willing to join the ceasefire.
 
Daesh and al-Nusra Front are excluded from the “cessation of the hostilities” agreement reached in late February as an attempt for facilitating peace talks. 
 
Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said the groups have asked for time to drive out the Nusra Front terrorists by themselves.
 
According to the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria, around 10 such messages have been received from various armed groups in different provinces asking for a halt in the strikes.
 
“Some of them are ready to provide us with coordinates of the areas which they control after they are fully cleared from terrorists, and further ensure that Syrian towns and army positions are not shelled from these areas,” Konashenkov said.     
 
On Tuesday, Russian deputy security chief Evgeny Lukyanov announced that the Russian Air Force and the Syrian army had killed out over a third of the Daesh and Nusra terrorists since Moscow began its operations in Syria on September 30 last year at the request of Damascus.