RT, Russia's English-language propaganda channel, has released the first footage of its newly constructed airbase at Latakia from where Moscow is conducting its Syrian airstrike campaign.
View this video on YouTube
The hardware on display includes Su-34 "Fullback" strike fighters, part of the arsenal of over 50 planes and helicopters stationed there.
Cargo flights also supply the approximately 1,500 Russian soldiers stationed at the base.
War correspondents from pro-Kremlin media like Alexander Kots, below, and Dmitry Steshin of the popular Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid are also in Syria, warning of the threat ISIS poses to Russia.
On Friday, Kots and Steshin wrote that Russia was preparing to support a Syrian operation aimed at recapturing the road between the cities of Hama and Homs, which would be the largest offensive from Bashar al-Assad's regime in some time.
"It'll be historic, for sure," they wrote.
Russia is tightly controlling the narrative around its operations, lashing out at reports in the Western press that its airstrikes are not actually targeting ISIS and claiming significant civilian casualties.
Some foreign media publish rumors concening Russian #AerospaceForces actions in #SYRIA. This is absolute nonsense without any factual basis
#SYRIA: Emerging information provocations constitute fabricated materials prepared even before the operation started. They are not the news.
In #SYRIA #Su34 bombers carry out pinpoint attacks from 5000 meters,their equipment provides absolute strike accuracy
On Friday, the defense ministry published video of what it said included strikes on the city of Raqqa, ISIS' capital — marking the first time they have acknowledged attacking the group.
But there's an answer for everything — even when non-ISIS militant groups declared war on Russia in response. "Whatever, we'll fuck you up," tweeted Igor Korotchenko, a prominent ultranationalist military expert.
Финансируемая саудитами сирийская группировка «Армия ислама» объявила войну России. Что ж, будем вас пиз@...ть!