Bashar Assad's first statements: Moscow requested my evacuation, I didn't plan it myself

Bashar al-Assad did not plan to leave Syria, his evacuation was requested by the Russian side. This was announced today, December 16, on the page of the office of the ex-head of state in social networks.

"I did not leave my homeland planned, as they are trying to teach. And I did not leave her during the last hours of the battles. I stayed in Damascus, fulfilling my duties until the morning of December 8. During those events, neither I nor anyone else raised the issue of asylum or resignation," Bashar al—Assad said.

He explained that in those days his only choice was to "continue the battle to defend himself in the face of a terrorist attack," and he left Damascus only after the armed opposition forces entered the city. From Latakia, Assad planned to observe combat operations, but when he arrived at the Russian Khmeimim airbase, he learned about the fall of Damascus.

"Moscow demanded that the base command organize my immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of December 8. This happened a day after the fall of Damascus," Assad said.

The former president claims that he did not abandon his people and army. In this regard, he recalled that he had not left the Syria in the most difficult years of the war and stood side by side with soldiers and officers on the first lines of fire.

His current evacuation was preceded by the collapse of the republic's armed forces and the paralysis of state institutions. In such a situation, according to Assad, it was pointless for him to stay in the country after the terrorists seized power, since he lost the opportunity to exercise his presidential powers.