Putin Weaponizes Refugees in Ukraine, Just as He Did in Syria
4th March 2022
As Russia’s invading forces pivot to siege warfare around Ukraine’s big cities, Moscow is likely to resort to scorched-earth tactics previously unleashed on the cities of Aleppo in Syria and Grozny in Chechnya.
In those conflicts, Russia deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure—including hospitals, schools, public markets, power plants, and water supplies—to deprive the armed opposition of popular support and to push refugees into neighboring countries.
The Russian bombing campaign in Syria—which began after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 2015 military intervention to prop up the regime of Syria’s Bashar Assad—pulverized Aleppo, a stronghold of anti-Assad resistance.