The head of the Arab Republic did not react to the tragic incident, during which the Syrian air defense weapons shot down a Russian Il-20. This caused surprise and outrage among a number of observers. According to the military correspondent of Alexander Kots, Bashar Assad should necessarily express his condolences to the families of the deceased Russian military who defended his country. "There are elementary diplomatic concepts," the journalist noted.. The protocol requires that an official statement of the head of state on such an important matter be made through the state news agency SANA. Assad's behavior may be due to his underlying dissatisfaction with the fact that the presidents of Russia and Turkey, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan without him decide the fate of Syria. The leaders of the two countries agreed to establish in the province of Idlib, which is still under the control of the opposition forces, a demilitarized zone, and the Syrian president does not like this. "Instead of pouring Idlib with napalm and sticking a governmental flag in the middle of the destroyed city, a security belt is built around it," Kots, who quotes Tsargrad, described the situation,. The IL-20 aircraft of the RF CC was knocked over the Mediterranean Sea on the night of 17 to 18 September. On its board there were 15 Russian military men, all of them were lost. At the time when the aircraft disappeared from the radar, it was 35 km from the Syrian coast. Later it became known that the plane was hit by a projectile, produced by the Syrian air defense system.

At that time, servicemen reflected the Israeli Air Force air raid. Russia has blamed the incident on Israel.

But at the same time, the Russian president called the incident "a tragic accident".

The Israeli side stated that it was ready to apologize if the guilt of their pilots was confirmed. Condolences in connection with the plane crash expressed even US President Donald Trump. And only the Syrian side, whose military was wrong with the goal, did not say a word.