MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday he was instructing his armed forces to start pulling out of Syria, over five months after he ordered the launch of a military operation that shored up his ally, Syrian President Bashar al Assad.

Mr Putin, at a meeting in the Kremlin with his defence and foreign ministers, said Russian military forces in Syria had largely fulfilled their objectives and ordered an intensification of Russia’s diplomatic efforts to broker a peace deal in the country.

But the Russian leader signalled Moscow would keep a military presence: he did not give a deadline for the completion of the withdrawal and said Russian forces would stay on at the port of Tartous and at the Hmeymim airbase in Syria’s Latakia province.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Putin had telephoned Mr Assad to inform him of the Russian decision.

Says Russian forces have largely fulfilled their objectives

In a statement, the Kremlin announced that Mr Putin had called President Assad to inform Moscow’s long-standing ally of the move that appears to end the main part of its intervention in Syria’s conflict that began in September.

“The leaders noted that the actions of the Russian air force allowed to radically change the situation in the fight against terrorism, to disorganise the fighters’ infrastructure and inflict significant damage on them,” the Kremlin said.

“Taking that into account, the President of Russia stated that the main tasks set before the armed forces of Russia in Syria had been completed. It was agreed to carry out the withdrawal of the main part of Russia’s air force contingent,” the statement said.

“Assad noted the professionalism, courage and heroism of the officers of the Russian armed forces that took part in the military operations and expressed deep appreciation to Russia,” the Kremlin said.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2016