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The Syrian foreign ministry announced on 20 July that Damascus is formally breaking diplomatic ties with Ukraine in response to a similar move by Kiev.

“The Syrian Arab Republic has decided to break diplomatic relations with Ukraine in conformity with the principle of reciprocity and in response to the decision of the Ukrainian government,” a foreign ministry official told state news agency SANA.

Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cut ties with Syria, after the government of Bashar al-Assad officially recognized the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in the Donbass region of eastern Europe.

“There will no longer be relations between Ukraine and Syria,” Zelensky said.

Syria was the first country apart from Russia to recognize the two nations’ independence.

However, the Syrian foreign ministry says that Kiev first severed relations in 2018 by refusing to revalidate the residencies of its diplomatic staff in Kiev.

As a result, the Syrian embassy was forced to suspend its duties at the time “as a result of the hostile attitudes of the Ukrainian government.”

The same year, Damascus gave official recognition to the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US army and the CIA have been involved in recruiting hundreds of mercenaries in Syria to fight on the side of Kiev against Russian troops.

These include members of Al-Qaeda, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), and ISIS.

According to a report by RT Arabic TV, approximately 500 ISIS fighters and militants from the Caucasus and Central Asian countries are undergoing training at a US occupation base in southern Syria to carry out attacks against units of the Russian army both inside Syria and in Ukraine.

Foreign mercenaries from around the globe joined Ukraine after Zelensky pleaded for global assistance following Russia’s military invasion, with many coming from Israel.

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Featured image: Syrians wave Russian and Syrian flags during a protest against US-led air strikes in Damascus, Syria on 14 April 2018. (Photo credit: VCG Photo)