Russia will continue to supply arms to the Syrian government as the UN Security Council has not imposed a ban on such trade, the head of Russia's state arms exporter said Wednesday.
"We are continuing to fulfill our contract obligations because Syria is not under any sanctions of the United Nations Security Council," Russian media quoted Anatoly Isaikin, Director of Rosoboronexport, as telling reporters in Moscow.
Stressing that the supplies did not include attack weapons such as planes or helicopters, he said: 'These aren't offensive weapons. We are mostly shipping air defense systems and repair equipment intended for various branches of the military."
Syria has been witnessing fierce fighting between government forces and armed rebels opposed to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad since March 2011. An estimated 60,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria since the armed rebellion began.
In addition to the millions trapped inside Syria, the conflict has forced hundreds of thousands to seek refuge in neighboring countries. The conflict, which is threatening to spill over to neighboring nations and increasingly becoming sectarian in nature, is now viewed as a civil war by most of the international community.
International efforts to find a solution to the crisis have been hampered by a deep divide in the UN Security Council, with Russia and China backing the Assad regime and the West opposing it. Moscow and Beijing have used their veto powers at the UN to bloc three West-backed resolutions on Syria.
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Market Analysis
May 22, 2026 14:46 ET Minutes of the latest Fed policy session was the highlight of the week along with survey data on the U.S. housing market. In Europe, survey data signaled the trends in the euro area private sector. Further, consumer price inflation data from the U.K. was in focus. In Asia, various economic indicators from China drew attention to the health of the economy.