No offensive is planned in Syria’s Aleppo, and the current operation is exclusively humanitarian, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS on Wednesday.
“We don’t have any other goals apart from alleviating the humanitarian situation for Aleppo residents and creating conditions for expanding the regime of cessation of hostilities. Neither an offensive by the Syrian forces nor air strikes of Russian Aerospace Defense Forces’ group are planned in Aleppo,” Ryabkov said.
The diplomat noted that US and other members of the anti-terrorist coalition are politicizing the situation in Aleppo and paint it in a false light. “The situation is rather complicated now because, as far we understand, US will not decide to support us in this matter, and they have no understanding on where to move from here,” he added.
“We note with concern that the ‘party of war’ exists not only among opponents of the Bashar Assad’s government in the Middle East, but also in Washington,” he concluded.
On July 28 Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that Russian and Syrian militaries are starting a large-scale humanitarian operation in Aleppo. Four humanitarian corridors will be established there. Civilians will be able to leave Aleppo via three corridors, while one more corridor may be used by militants who wish to lay down arms. The defense minister also ordered to airdrop food, medicaments and necessities to civilians in Aleppo.