The former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton has claimed that President Donald Trump was concerned about possible losses among Russian military personnel if a U.S. strike was launched against Syrian regime facilities in April of 2018.

In his memoirs about serving under Trump, Bolton described the meetings that took place in the White House after a chemical attack by the Assad regime in Syria.

Bolton said Trump was worried about accidentally hitting the Russian forces with missiles intended to target Syrian regime installations and troops.

“Trump was concerned about possible Russian losses in Syria, given the large military presence of Russia there, which increased dramatically during the Obama era, ” Bolton wrote.

According to Bolton, there was reasonable justification for this concern. Participants at the meeting asked the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, “to contact his Russian counterpart, Valery Gerasimov, and to assure him that the actions that the United States will take will not be directed against facilities and elements of the Russian army in Syria.”

Bolton stressed that the channel of communication between the chiefs of the general staff of the Russian and American armies was and remains one of the important means of communication between the two countries, which in many cases is more appropriate than normal diplomatic contacts.

Speaking of possible losses among Iranian military elements in Syria, Bolton said that this matter received no attention among the participants in the meetings.