Ukraine To Be First European Country To Establish Diplomatic Ties With HTS-Led Syria Ukraine is among the first countries in Europe to declare it is working to re-establish diplomatic ties with Damascus and that it will soon recognize post-Assad Syria under Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) President Zelensky in last week's comments made no mention that a US-designated terrorist organization which is an offshoot of al-Qaeda is running things in Damascus, as this is apparently but a minor detail to him.