Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister (Russian): “The number of refugees from Mosul is around one million, and I’ve even seen the source stating that it is 1.2 million. It exceeds the number of people who left Eastern Aleppo via the safe corridors. In the case of Mosul, no opportunities were created for civilians to leave the city in an organised way; it was all chaotic and spontaneous. And of course, when this happens chaotically, it leads to additional difficulties and the number of victims grows. I’ve seen TV reports on Euronews and other Western channels, and there it was stated quite straight-forwardly, that there are practically no buildings left undestroyed, that the city has been almost completely ruined. This is again about the double standards that I’ve mentioned speaking about eastern Aleppo as it was liberated with much less damage to civilian infrastructure. We are certainly glad, that ISIS will be defeated. Probably, the price paid for the victory over terrorism will remain high. But in this case no one should put on a saintly air and overlook one’s own shortcomings.”