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experts have been drafted by to assist Moscow's according to reports.Ìý

The crude, deadly weapons -Ìýfashioned out of oil barrels, fuel tanks or gas cylinders and packed with explosives, fuel and metal fragments -Ìýwere used by the Syrian regime to destroy large swathes of . Dropped from helicopters and planes, the weaponsÌýhave likelyÌýkilled thousands of civilians.

More than 50 specialists, with experience in making and delivering the crude explosives, have been in Russia for several weeks working alongside officials from Putin’s forces, according to The Guardian.Ìý

This has heightened European and US fears that Moscow is planning a campaign of in Ukraine following months of setbacks inÌýlaunched on 24 February.Ìý

One European official said an armoury of ground-to-air missiles in Ukraine, not available to the , is "probably why we haven't seen [the weapons] cross the border", according to the Guardian.Ìý

"We know the capacity is there, but if they use it, they lose; we will know who's done it, and they will likely be killed anyway," the unnamed official said, as reported by the British newspaper.Ìý

documented the use of thousands of barrel bombs in Syria, including around 6,800 dropped on Daraya, just outside Damascus, between January 2014 to February 2016 alone.Ìý

The Assad regime has used deadly chemicals against opposition areas, such as the nerve agent sarin and chlorine.Ìý

This campaign of attrition resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries, triggeringÌýa mass exodus from opposition areas.Ìý

"It is absolutely outrageous - though not surprising - that the Syrian government has continued to bombard and starve its own civilians," saidÌýMiddle East and North Africa deputy director for Amnesty,ÌýMagdalena Mughrabi, in 2016 after a video emerged of the terror inflicted on civilians in Daraya by barrel bombs.Ìý

Putin is a close ally of the Assad and through the deployment of fighters and weapons in Syria, Russia has helped turn the tide of the war against theÌýopposition.Ìý