MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Friday, the ministry announced that a humanitarian corridor was shelled around the western part of the Castello road in Aleppo. Two Russian servicemen were injured as a result.
"Nonetheless, even despite this shelling and the continuing provocations on the part of militants, the aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Syrian Air Forces have not been conducting strikes in Aleppo for 19 days already," Konashenkov said on Saturday.
He pointed out that, in contrast, the aviation of the US-led international coalition has carried out 18 strikes around Iraq’s Mosul in the past 24 hours alone.
Syria’s Aleppo has been the scene of fierce battles between Syria’s army and militants holding the city's eastern districts. Fighting has escalated in recent days since militants announced an offensive and fired missiles on government-held districts of western Aleppo.
Russia introduced an earlier humanitarian pause in October, to ensure the safe evacuation of civilians and unarmed militants from eastern Aleppo through designated corridors. That pause collapsed when Jabhat Fatah al Sham (also known as Nusra Front, or Jabhat al-Nusra) militants prevented civilians from fleeing Aleppo and attacked them, prompting an offensive by government forces.
