Turkey has escalated a widespread offensive against Syrian troops and their allies, shooting down two government planes, wiping out dozens of pieces of military hardware including tanks and radar systems, and stalling a regime momentum that had been rampaging through Idlib province.

The attacks came in response to the killing of at least 33 troops in an airstrike in northern Syria on Thursday night and marked one of the most sustained direct clashes between regional militaries in decades.

The Syrian military had not previously lost more than one jet fighter on a single day throughout the eight-year war, which had been mainly fought through a myriad of proxies. A Turkish F-16 shot both planes down after Turkey lost a drone to Syrian fire. The downing of the jets was acknowledged by both sides and made light of regime claims that it would defend its airspace over the north of the country – a role taken over by Russia in the past four years, whose forces Ankara has avoided over the past three days.

Instead, Turkish drones and artillery pieces have killed at least 106 Syrian soldiers and dozens more allied militiamen, including 14 members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and at least 21 Afghan and Pakistani Shias who had been sent to Idlib by Iran.

Syrian rebel groups and diplomats in the region say Russia was responsible for the lethal airstrike on Turkish forces, a fact that they say Ankara privately recognises. Turkey’s public wrath, however, has been squarely directed at forces fighting on behalf of Bashar al-Assad, exposing the limitations of a fatigued military and its ageing hardware that has proved little match for Turkey’s modern weaponry.

“We have neither the intention nor the idea to face Russia,” said the Turkish defence minister, Hulusi Akar. “Our only intention there is for the regime to end the massacre and thereby stop radicalisation and migration.”

Russia has been reluctant to defend Syrian interests over the past 72 hours, a posture diplomats suggest is partly aimed at avoiding further inflaming Ankara while also keeping the regime in check. The offensive has mostly grounded both countries’ air forces, delivering welcome respite to the more than 3 million people crammed into Idlib province, many of whom had been barricaded in ruins, or sleeping rough in the face of a ground push and relentless airstrikes.

The Turkish military claims to have killed more than 2,000 Assad-aligned fighters in recent weeks, although observers who monitor casualties across Syria estimate the figure at closer to 150. In addition, dozens of Syrian tanks and armoured carriers, howitzer and mortar positions, eight helicopters and at least three mobile radar positions have been destroyed. Footage from drones, which have been responsible for much of the damage, corroborate some of the Turkish claims.

“The regime has been bombing with impunity,” said Moad Qubeis, a fighter from a coalition of opposition forces in northern Syria. “There are people looking out for us after all, as well as themselves.”

Syrians have been massing at entry points on Turkey’s southern border in the wake of Ankara’s threats to allow refugees to cross its territory and travel to Europe. Restrictions on that happening have been in place since a deal struck with the EU in 2016 after more than 1.5 million Syrians travelled onwards from Turkey, in some cases aided by Turkish authorities.

People who have fled Syria rest as they wait to cross the border from Turkey into Greece. Photograph: Sedat Suna/EPA

A bilateral meeting between Moscow and Ankara is scheduled to be held in Moscow on Thursday, in which both sides will aim to patch up a dispute over the fate of Idlib. It is understood that Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, are likely to meet – a move that suggests a binding agreement is in the offing.

Any such pact would likely go a long way towards easing hostilities in Idlib, the last province of Syria to remain completely out of central government control. Addressing the aftermath, however, will require broad international engagement. Syria and Idlib in particular remain ravaged by the devastating war, which has taken a heavier toll on civilians than any other conflict in recent history.

“How would you even start to put this country back together,” said Ardil Mohammed, 48, from Ghouta near Damascus, who has been hiding with his family near the Turkish border. “Everyone around me comes from somewhere else. No one has a home any more. And Bashar has a castle, but not a country.”