Russia's foreign ministry has confirmed that it has "advisers" on the ground in Syria, but claims that they are just providing military aid to the local government.
Last night (Tuesday) the US claimed that Russia is increasing its military presence in the embattled country.
A spokesperson said, "Russian military specialists help Syrians master Russian hardware, and we can’t understand the anti-Russian hysteria about this" and added that Russia has always been open about its military cooperation with dictator Bashar al-Assad.