Russia continues to support Syria's Bashar Assad after anti-regime groups' offensive last week claimed swathes of territory from regime control.

"We, of course, continue to support Bashar al-Assad and we continue contacts at the appropriate levels, we are analyzing the situation," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

He added that Russia would draw up a "position on what is necessary to stabilize the situation."

Moscow said so after Assad spoke of the "importance" of his allies in facing an armed offensive that saw the Syrian regime lose control of Aleppo.

According to monitors, Syrian and Russian aircraft staged deadly strikes in support of regime forces on Sunday.

Russia intervened in the Syrian Civil War in 2015, stepping into the conflict on the side of Assad’s regime on his request/

In 2016, the Russian air force helped the Syrian regime forces recapture opposition-held areas of Aleppo.

Assad is one of the few leaders who has openly supported Moscow’s offensive against Ukraine.

The frozen conflict in war-torn Syria was rekindled last week when forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) claimed several territorial gains in their lightning offensive that primarily targeted Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city.

Elsewhere, the Syrian National Army (SNA) of the opposition managed to capture Tal Rifaat where the PKK/YPG terrorist group sought to establish a "terror corridor" by linking it to northeastern Syrian towns it controls after the HTS-led forces’ gains.

In a joint statement, the United States, France, Germany and Britain urged "de-escalation by all parties and the protection of civilians and infrastructure to prevent further displacement and disruption of humanitarian access."

Anti-regime forces also seized control of all of Idlib province in recent days, the boldest assault for years in a civil war where front lines had largely been frozen since 2020.