Russia is continuing its reinforcement of sites in Syria and thousands of troops, including ground troops, are deployed on the ground according to CNN correspondents who visited Russian facilities in the Arab republic.
Russia is officially in the midst of a pullback from Syria after Russian President Vladimir Putin called for the majority of forces to return home in March. The size of Russia's deployment to Syria has been unclear since the start of the operation in September and Russian involvement in the conflict does not appear to have reduced following the announcement.
Its air force is still carrying out airstrikes, U.S. officials have reported Russian tanks and land vehicles are also posted in Syria and Russia has also admitted it has deployed special forces troops, despite initially denying sending in any boots on the ground.
Following Russia's marquee victory against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in the city of Palmyra, Russian and Syrian forces invited journalists to the site last week.
According to CNN's correspondents, the operation of transporting over 100 international journalists betrayed the extent of Russia's involvement in Syria. The group's ferry was escorted by helicopters and shadowed by Mi-28, KA-52 and Mi-35 gunships.
Once on the ground, the CNN crew reported seeing large deployments of Russian ground forces, whose presence Moscow still denies, and even an army outpost near Palmyra.
"The freshly paved camp is officially a base for the mining crews that cleared thousands of explosive devices from Palmyra and the surrounding towns over the past weeks since the city was retaken from ISIS," Frederik Pleitgen, CNN's senior international correspondent reports.
"But aside from mine-clearing equipment, there also are dozens of fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers stationed at the base. While those assets could be there for force protection, Russia has also deployed a state-of-the-art Pantsir-S1 air defense system that can both launch missiles and fire cannons at incoming planes," he added.
According to the crew's observations, despite the lack of official estimates about the exact size of Russia's deployment in Syria, there were "at least several thousand troops on the ground along with modern weaponry and infrastructure."
In March the Russian government hinted at the magnitude of its operation in Syria, when it ordered over 10,000 medals specifically for personnel returning from the conflict. Several Russian soldiers have also died in Syria, at least one of whom was killed by shelling.
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