Ukraine and Syria: a budding new friendship

Ukraine has pledged its support for the interim government in Syria after Kyiv's foreign minister met with his new Syrian counterpart during a visit to Damascus.

The talks between Ukraine's Andrii Sybiha and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani (pictured at their press conference, above), signal a shift in relations between the two nations who have each had momentous, if very different, interactions with Moscow in recent years.

What's happened so far?

Ukraine cut diplomatic ties with Damascus in June 2022, after Syria – then a Russian ally and dependent – recognised the "independence" of the Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions. But since rebels overthrew the Assad regime last month, Kyiv has been "moving to build ties" with the "new Islamist rulers there", said Reuters.

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy has already sent 500 tonnes of wheat flour to Syria, in a humanitarian-aid initiative with the UN World Food Programme. And Kyiv's support would not be "a one-off", said the Agriculture and Food Minister Vitaliy Koval, but "rather long-lasting and predictable". Writing on X, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine supports the Syrian people in "overcoming decades of dictatorial rule" and "restoring stability, security, and normal life".

What is Ukraine looking to get out of it?

Some of Zelenskyy's moves are "raw power play", aimed at "rubbing the Kremlin's nose" in its failure to prevent the fall of Assad, wrote Anne McElvoy, executive editor of Politico, for the i news site. But Kyiv also "glimpses opportunity" in the move: Ukraine can "emerge from victim status" and "assert its own interests" on the world stage. It doing so, it hopes to show that it is "forging its way as an autonomous country, not a satellite or proxy", in defiance of the "grim Putin vision for its future".

A closer relationship with the new regime in Damascus also offers the "added bonus" of useful intelligence on Russian military facilities in Syria.

What does Syria stand to gain?

The most immediate benefit for Syria of a courtship with Ukraine is the prospect of food supplies, which are desperately needed right now. The country is facing a "food security and economic crisis", said The Independent, with around 90% of Syrians living in poverty and, according to the UN, more than half not sure "where their next meal will come from".

On a wider scale, it's also part of a strategy in which Syria is "gradually shifting away" from Russia and Iran and "rekindling ties with Western and Gulf Arab nations that had opposed Assad's rule".

How will a closer alliance affect the world?

It's not yet clear. Speaking to the national Al-Arabiya TV channel, Syria's new de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has "hinted" that he will "maintain some contact" with Moscow, said the Kyiv Post. There are "deep strategic interests between Russia and Syria", he said. Syria's arms "are of Russian origin" and "many power plants are managed by Russian experts", so "we do not want Russia to leave Syria in the way that some wish".

Meanwhile, said McElvoy, the "great game" of "alliances stretching from Europe via Turkey to Russia and the Middle East" is entering a new phase. "The consequences will be far-reaching" and possibly unpredictable, but "that is the world as it is".