On Sunday, the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, announced that over the past 2 month, the territory controlled by the government in Damascus had increased its territory by 250%. Shoigu added that the release of the key city of Sukhna in the province of Homs opens up the possibility of unblocking the strategically significant city of Deir ez-Zor, which is surrounded by ISIS. He also added that Russia “began to convince American colleagues that it is necessary to separate the terrorists from the opposition in order to understand where to strike. With the emergence of de-escalation zones in Syria, that very separation took place. ”