Russia's Putin visits Syria, meets with Assad

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Syria on Tuesday and met his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. Accompanied by Assad, Putin visited the Old City of Damascus including, the 8th century Umayyad mosque and an ancient Mariamite Cathedral of Damascus.

Putin's previous trip to Syria was in 2017, when he visited Russia's air base. Putin is due to hold talks on Wednesday with President Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, which has sent forces into much of northern Syria to beat back Kurdish-led forces that had been backed by the United States.