International media reports say Russia and Turkey have agreed to joint military patrols along the Turkish-Syrian border as they demanded Syrian Kurdish fighters withdraw from the area.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, made the agreement during a meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in Russia.
Russian and Turkish leaders Russian military police and Syrian border guards will enter the Syrian side of the border with Turkey from midday on Wednesday.
Under the agreement, they reportedly want the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) to agree to withdraw from the towns of Manbij and Tal Rifaat, which are outside the current areas of conflict.
Shortly after, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Defense Force (SDF) informed the US it had withdrawn all YPG forces "out of the Turkish-controlled safe zone", as agreed under the US-brokered ceasefire.
Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said after the meeting that up to 500 people, including Islamic (IS) militants, had escaped since Turkey's invasion started in the absence of security guards.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin has explained to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by phone the results of his lengthy talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Russian leader, in particular, highlighted that restoring Syria’s territorial integrity was the main task.
Assad thanked Putin and “expressed his full support for the results of the work, as well as the readiness of the Syrian border guards, together with the Russian military police, to reach the Syrian-Turkish border,” the Kremlin said.
Turkey launched its offensive against Kurdish-led forces on October 9 after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he was withdrawing the bulk of U.S. troops from northeast Syria.
