Few hours after US President Donald Trump ordered missile attacks on Syria, Russian President and his Syrian counterpart have lashed out at the US for what they consider an “act of aggression”.
The United States military launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles on Syria, directly at the Shayrat airfield on the orders of Trump. Trump’s orders were in reaction to what he believed to be chemical weapons being used to kill dozens of civilians by the Syrian regime earlier in the week.
Though Putin said the US attack was a violation of international law, western leaders mostly supported the US action, saying that Assad deserved it.
About 80 Syrian civilians died in Idlib, a rebel-held town, on Tuesday after warplanes carried out a chemical attack.
Trump has since admitted ordering the missile attacks on Syria, noting that Assad’s obstinacy to change necessitated the strikes. “Years of previous attempts at changing Assad’s behaviour have all failed and failed very dramatically, Trump said.
Putin described the US action as “aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of international law under a far-fetched pretext.” He added that the strikes on Syria has caused a strain in Russian-US relations.
Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, also said that the relationship between the US and Russia has gone sour after the attacks. “I am particularly disappointed by the way this damages US-Russia relations.”
Bashar al-Assad, Syrian President, said that the US has acted unjustly with the airstrikes, noting that it “shows nothing but short-sightedness, a narrowness of vision and a blindness to political and military realities.”
A statement from Syria’s general military command also said that “extensive material damage” has been done on the Syrian army as a result of the attacks, which makes the US an ally to ISIS, Nusra Front, and other terrorist organizations.