Russian television station Rossiya 24 tailored their weather report to support Russia’s bombing of Syria, reporting that the weather was ideal for an airstrike campaign in the Mideast nation.
“Russian aerospace forces are continuing their operation in Syria. Experts say the timing for it was chosen very well in terms of weather,” described the forecaster.
Images flashed from the weather forecast “to aerial footage released by the defence ministry showing targets in the Syrian countryside being peppered by Russian bombs.” The report claims October is the perfect month to perform these airstrikes. The blonde forecaster stated “the average wind speed is only 2.4 metres per second and rain typically falls once every 10 days.” The Middle Eastern country faces 13 cloudy days, but that, she said, should not affect the planes.
“In these meteorological conditions, planes can dive below the clouds and conduct effective strikes on ground targets, and only climb higher if there’s active anti-aircraft fire,” she exclaimed.
But now Kremlin propaganda mouthpiece Russia Today is reporting bad weather caused a Russian jet to violate Turkish airspace.
President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin met last week after both spoke at the United Nations General Assembly. They spoke about Ukraine and Syria, but “disagreed on the role Syrian President Bashar Assad will have in resolving the civil conflict there.”
Russia has been Assad’s top ally since the civil war broke out four years ago with Iran close behind. Since then, radical Islamic groups such as the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) grew in influence and now control a large portion of Syria and Iraq. While most nations involved in the fight agree that the Islamic State must be destroyed, the majority disagree with Russia and Iran about Assad. They demand he remain in power.
But a day after the meeting, the Russian government demanded the U.S. abandon Syrian airspace and began airstrikes in the country. Russia insisted the planes targeted the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), but an unnamed U.S. official told Reuters the planes targeted areas not occupied by the radical Islamic group.
A senior U.S. defense official told CNN the Pentagon was “taken aback” by Russia’s actions. “Our presidents just talked about setting up de-confliction talks and now they just go ahead and do this? They cannot be trusted.”
A second U.S. official said: “This is not how military relations are conducted, by banging on the door of our embassy and reading a note.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the UN Security Council that Russia received a request from Assad to start the strikes.
“On the 30th of September in response to a letter by the President of Syria, the President of Russia asked and received the consent of the Council of Federation for the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation in the Syrian Arab Republic,” he said. “We’re referring here exclusively to the operation of the Russian air force to carry out strikes against ISIL positions in Syria. We have informed the authorities in the United States and other members of the coalition created by the Americans of this and are ready to forge standing channels of communication to ensure maximally effective fight against the terrorist groups.”
On Monday, the military announced that Russian “volunteers” fighting in Ukraine might travel to Syria to fight with President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. However, the Kremlin insists the government has no plans to deploy ground troops.
“It is likely that groups of Russian volunteers will appear in the ranks of the Syrian army as combat participants,” Admiral Vladimir Komoyedov, head of the Russian parliament’s defense committee, told Russian media.