In 2015, Russia waged its largest military campaign outside its borders since the Cold War, launching a sweeping air war to rescue Bashar al-Assad’s crumbling regime in Syria. Back then, Syrian rebels were closing in on the regime’s strongholds, even as Assad leaned heavily on Iran and Hezbollah for support in the years prior. Moscow’s intervention turned the tide, culminating in the recapture of the largest Syrian city of Aleppo and a fragile stability that has largely held since.

Until now.

A Syrian opposition fighter takes a picture of a comrade stepping on........

© The Sydney Morning Herald