The fall of Vladimir Putin’s ally Bashar al-Assad is “also our defeat”, according to Russian military bloggers.
Russia has used Syria to establish itself in the Middle East over the last decade, even setting up to two military facilities there in exchange for propping up the cruel Assad regime.
But that authoritarian government has now fallen after a sudden rebellion.
Moscow has not been able to provide the same amount of support as it did in 2015, when it helped Assad successfully crush another revolt.
This time, Putin is distracted by the Ukraine war and Donald Trump’s looming second presidency, where the Republican will push for a quick resolution to the war.
Russian war bloggers, who are given greater freedom to speak out on than many in the military and are often close to the Russian defence ministry, have warned that this will have a direct impact on Moscow.
Igor Girkin, a former military commander who fought in Ukraine but is currently serving a four-year prison sentence after accusing the Kremlin of making war errors, said Russia is “overstretched”.
According to Reuters new agency, he wrote on Telegram: “Now our enemies have naturally decided to take advantage of our weakness at the moment when we are busy on the Ukrainian front. We are overstretched. The defeat of the Syria side will also be our defeat.”
Influential war blogger Rybar, with more than 1.3m followers on Telegram, also wrote: “In reality we need to understand that the insurgents will not stop.
They will try to inflict maximum defeat and the maximum reputational and physical damage on the representatives of the Russian Federation (in Syria) and in particular to destroy our military bases.”
Another, Starshe Eddi with more than 600,000 followers, said: “Ten years there, dead Russian soldiers, billions of roubles spent and thousands of tonnes of ammunition expended – they must be compensations somehow.”
Meanwhile, writing on his Truth Social platform on Sunday morning, Trump suggested Putin had deliberately withdrawn his help from Syria.
He said: “Assad is gone. He has fled his country.
“His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer.
“There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place.
“They lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever.
“Russia and Iran are in a weakened state right now, one because of Ukraine and a bad economy, the other because of Israel and its fighting success.”
But his remarks come after Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov suggested on Saturday that it would be “inadmissible to allow the terrorist group to take control” in Syria, and claimed Moscow continued to help the government.
But, when asked if he thought Assad could hold onto power, he said he was “not in the business of guessing”.
Rebel forces in Damascus now say they have freed the city from Assad while the government troops are withdrawing from the capital.
Assad himself has reportedly left Damascus and his location is unknown.