![U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) conducts strike operations while in the Mediterranean Sea U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) conducts strike operations while in the Mediterranean Sea which U.S. Defense Department said was a part of cruise missile strike against Syria on April 7, 2017. Ford Williams/Courtesy U.S. Navy/Handout via REUTERS](https://www.netnewsledger.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Syria-Missle-Attack-2017-04-07T043118Z_1_LYNXMPED3608M_RTROPTP_4_MIDEAST-CRISIS-SYRIA.jpg)
![Russia President Putin](https://www.netnewsledger.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Vladimir_Putin-6.jpg)
MOSCOW – NEWS – The Tomahawk missile strikes against Syria by the United States have grave consequences for relations between the US and Russia.
In a statement from the Russian President’s office, “This move by Washington [the US airstrike on an air base in Syria] has dealt a serious blow to Russian-US relations, which are already in a poor state. Most importantly, this move will not bring us closer to the ultimate goal of combatting international terrorism but will instead create a major obstacle to the establishment of an international counterterrorist coalition and to effective struggle against this global evil, something that US President Donald Trump declared as one of his main goals during his election campaign”.
President Putin regards the US airstrikes on Syria as “An act of aggression against a sovereign state delivered in violation of international law under a far-fetched pretext. The Syrian Army has no chemical weapons. The fact of the destruction of all Syrian chemical weapons’ stockpiles has been recorded and verified by the OPCW, a specialised UN body. Vladimir Putin believes that complete disregard for factual information about the use by terrorists of chemical weapons drastically aggravates the situation”.
The Russian President through his office states, “Vladimir Putin regards the US strikes on Syria as an attempt to draw public attention away from the numerous civilian casualties in Iraq”.