Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has said Syrian government troops backed by Russian forces have recaptured huge swathes of territory from opposition forces in the previous two months.
Shoigu told Rossia-1 television on August 12 that the amount of territory regained by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since June was twice as large as that which was controlled by Damascus in September 2015, when Russian forces began aiding Syrian forces with air strikes.
Shoigu called the Syrian Army's gains "really impressive."
Sergei Rudskoi, chief of the Russian General Staff's Main Operations Department, said that as of August 1, the Syrian Army controlled some 74,200 square kilometers of Syria.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Syria since fighting between Syrian troops and opposition fighters began in 2011. Millions of others have been forced to flee their homes.
