Sipan Hamo is a Syrian Democratic Forces commander. In October 2017, he travelled to Russia to meet with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu and Chief-of-Staff Valeria Gerasimov over the future of Deir ez-Zour and Raqqa. Hamo was the highest SDF officer to travel to Russia since the beginning of the Syrian civil war[1] In February 2018, Hamo commented on Russian laissez-faire regarding Turkey's Operation Olive Branch entering SDF-held Afrin canton, stating that Russia was making a strategic mistake.[2]