Syrian president Bashar Assad has left Syria after negotiations with rebel groups, and given “instructions” to “transfer power peacefully”, Russia’s foreign ministry has said.
Moscow had not directly participated in these talks, the ministry said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
It also said it had been following the “dramatic events” in Syria “with extreme concern”.
The collapse of the Syrian government, falling to a lightning rebel offensive that seized control of the capital Damascus, sent crowds into the streets on Sunday to celebrate the end of the Assad family’s 50 years of iron rule.
Syrian state television aired a video statement early on Sunday by a group of men saying Mr Assad had been overthrown and all detainees in jails had been set free.
The man who read the statement said the opposition group known as Operations Room to Conquer Damascus had called on all opposition fighters and citizens to preserve state institutions of “the free Syrian state”.
The statement emerged hours after the head of a Syrian opposition war monitor said Mr Assad had left the country for an undisclosed location, fleeing ahead of insurgents who said they had entered Damascus following a remarkably swift advance across the country.
Many of the capital’s residents were in disbelief at the speed at which Mr Assad lost his hold after nearly 14 years of civil war.
As daylight broke over Damascus, crowds gathered to pray in the city’s mosques and to celebrate in the squares, chanting “God is great”. People also chanted anti-Assad slogans and honked car horns.
Russia has waged a military campaign in Syria since September 2015, teaming up with Iran to allow Mr Assad’s government to fight armed opposition groups and reclaim control over most of the country.
While Russia now concentrates the bulk of its military resources in Ukraine, it has maintained a military foothold in Syria and keeps troops at its bases there.
It said on Sunday that Russian troops stationed in Syria had been put on high alert and that as of early afternoon on Sunday, there was “no serious threat” to the security of Russia’s military bases there.
