"Today, we started a large-scale operation on launching massive strikes on Daesh and al-Nusra Front targets in the Idlib and Homs provinces [in Syria]," Shoigu said.
Accoridng to him, Admiral Grigorovich frigate, Bastion coastal missile systems and "for the first time in history of the Russian Naval Forces" Admiral Kuznetsov aicraft-carrying cruiser take part in the military operation.
"Admiral Grigorovich [frigate] takes part in the operation. Today, it launched Kalibr cruise missiles on [terrorist] targets that had been confirmed by intelligence data and determined in advance," the minister said at a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with top officials of the Russian Armed Forces.
Shoigu said that the Russian Armed Forces launch strikes on terrorists' plants in Syria, especially those producing poisonous substances. "It's clear that it's a well-organized industrial production, that's why we carry out strikes [on terrorist plants]."
"Ammunition depots, terrorist training centers and plants producing different means of unconventional weapons are the main targets of the strikes."
The minister reminded that a large group of Russian troops were sent to the country to determine what kind of chemical weapons terrorists in Syria were using.
"They [terrorists] used them twice this week. In one instance, 27 people were hospitalized and three were killed, in the other case 30 were hospitalized. I mean the fighters of the Syrian army," he added.
On November 12, the commander of the Admiral Kuznetsov said that aea-based jets of the aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov which arrived in the Syrian coast heading a group of the Russian Northern Fleet's squadron started training flights.
On October 15, Russia's Northern Fleet’s press service said that a group of warships headed by the aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov accompanied by the Pyotr Veliky battle cruiser, the Severomorsk and Vice-Admiral Kulakov anti-submarine destroyer, and support vessels was sent to the Mediterranean to hold drills.
