(Bloomberg) — Turkish troops who poured into Syria to fight Kurdish militants abandoned by the U.S. may have inadvertently handed Russian President Vladimir Putin a strategic victory in the middle East.

Less than a week after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the intervention, Russia underlined its dominance in the region by warning of limiting its patience with the operation. The Kremlin’s message came after President Donald trump imposed sanctions on Turkey that left many in Congress unimpressed after his withdrawal of the last 1,000 U.S. troops from Kurdish-held territory for seven years during the Syrian war.

Ankara says the offensive, which has sparked a wave of international condemnation, is necessary to push back Kurdish militants it calls terrorists linked to separatists inside Turkey.