"About 300 military police personnel from a unit stationed in the Chechen Republic, have arrived in the Syrian Arab Republic to perform special tasks...," the ministry said in a statement.

According to the statement, they "will begin to carry out tasks to assist in ensuring the safety of the population and maintaining law and order, patrolling the designated areas, as well as assisting in the withdrawal of units of the Kurdish self-defense units and their armaments to the distance of 30 kilometers [18.6 miles] from the Syrian-Turkish border."

On Thursday, a Russian Defense Ministry source told Sputnik that, in light of new tasks, another 276 Russian military police and 33 pieces of military equipment would be sent to Syria.