Turkey, Russia have agreed on Syria ceasefire from midnight: President Erdogan

President Erdogan after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Turkey and Russia have agreed to Syria ceasefire from midnight.

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"At 00.01 tonight, as in, from midnight, the ceasefire will be put in place," Erdogan said after talks with Putin in Moscow.

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President Putin declared that he reached an agreement with Erdogan on the Syria crisis.

"We agreed on a joint document," Putin said, adding that it would "serve as a good basis for ending fighting in the Idlib de-escalation zone and ending the suffering of the civilian population".

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Putin had said earlier that the situation in Idlib province had become so tense it required one-on-one talks with President Erdogan.

The Kremlin said the two leaders had spoken for three hours on their own before being joined by their officials pointing to the gravity of the situation.

Fierce fighting has been raging in last rebel-held territory of Idlib with Russian air strikes backed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces. On Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said a Turkish fighter jet had downed a Syrian regime warplane over the northwestern Idlib province.

Regime forces have since December been battling to retake the last major opposition bastion of Idlib from rebels and jihadists linked to Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate.

Turkey hosts some 3.6 million Syrian refugees and says it cannot handle more. As the bitter fight continued, several thousand people poured into the border with Greece with authorities firing tear gas shells. Greece has repulsed nearly 35,000 migrants trying to cross onto its territory illegally since Turkey opened its border nearly a week ago,

Turkey on Sunday had confirmed it had launched a military operation against Russia-backed regime forces in the border region.