While the Russian military has deployed heavy weaponry to the PKK-affiliated Syrian Peoples‘ Protection Units (YPG) in the western town of Afrin for the fifth time since November, Assad regime forces overran the last major rebel-held town in the coastal Latakia province on Sunday. The Russian-backed gains of the Assad regime and the YPG accelerating offensives on moderate Syrian opposition groups near Afrin are part of the YPG‘s plans to connect all the Kurdish cantons in northern Syria.