Almost 50 Russians Rescued in Syria to Be Evacuated to Russia

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Center for Syrian Reconciliation, Lt. Gen. Sergei Kuralenko, said at a briefing on Tuesday that a group of 46 Russians rescued from areas formerly controlled by the Daesh terrorist group is being prepared for evacuation to Russia.

"A new group of 46 our compatriots taken out of areas that were earlier controlled by the IS [Daesh] terrorist group is being prepared for evacuation to Russia, most of them are women and children. Many of them were deceived into Syria and Iraq. They were taken from Russia by their husbands who fought on the side of terrorists," Kuralenko said.

In August, the RT broadcaster filmed a Baghdad orphanage where Russian children were living. They were smuggled to Iraq by parents who came there to join Daesh, including in the northern city of Mosul. The kids were abandoned after the government offensive to retake the city ended. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who published the video on his Instagram, expressed hope that the children's relatives might watch the video and announce themselves.

On Monday, a group of over 40 rescued women and children from Russia's republics of Bashkortostan, Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, as well as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were brought to Russia's North Caucasus city of Grozny from Syrian hotspots.

In the last three months, several humanitarian flights were carried out from Iraq and Syria to Grozny, bringing back 89 people to their homeland. According to Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Anna Kuznetsova, more than 400 Russian children are still in Iraq and Syria.