DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – Ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad said in a statement Monday he wanted to stay in the country after militants and terrorists captured the capital Damascus a week ago, but the Russian military evacuated him from their base in western Syria after it came under attack.
The comments are the first by Assad since he was overthrown by takfiri-led insurgent groups just over a week ago, saying there was a “flood of misinformation” surrounding the circumstances of his exit from Syria.
Assad said in a statement on his Facebook page that he left Damascus on the morning of Dec. 8, hours after militants stormed the capital. He said he left in coordination with Russian allies to their Hmeimim air base in the coastal province of Latakia, where he had planned to keep fighting.
“First, my departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles, as some have claimed. On the contrary, I remained in Damascus, carrying out my duties until the early hours of Sunday 8th December 2024,” read the statement.
He said he then moved to Latakia in order to “oversee combat operations” at the Hmeimim airbase alongside his Russian allies. The base then came under drone attack and the leadership in Moscow ordered the evacuation to Russia.
“Upon arrival at the Hmeimim airbase that morning, it became clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from all battle lines and that the last army positions had fallen. 
“As the field situation in the area continued to deteriorate, the Russian military base itself came under intensified attack by drone strikes. With no viable means of leaving the base, Moscow requested that the base’s command arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday 8th December. 
“This took place a day after the fall of Damascus, following the collapse of the final military positions and the resulting paralysis of all remaining state institutions,” the statement said.
“At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge, nor was such a proposal made by any individual or party,” said the statement.
“The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.”
In the statement, Assad also said he had never led Syria for “personal gain” but instead saw himself as the “custodian” of Syria who defended the country up to the last moment.
In the statement, Assad described himself as the “person who, during the darkest years of the war, did not leave but remained with his family alongside his people, confronting terrorism under bombardment and the recurring threats of terrorist incursions into the capital over fourteen years of war”.
He also “never abandoned the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon, nor betrayed his allies who stood by him”, nor did he “forsake his own people or betray the