Russia's Goal in Aleppo Was 'Preventing Casualties Among Civilians'

According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, some 100,000 people were evacuated from Aleppo and the situation was resolved without major combat activities.

"This is the biggest humanitarian operation in the world. And it could not be achieved without the Turkish president, without Iran's leadership and the Syrian president," Putin said during a major press conference on Friday.

At the same time, many Western politicians and mainstream media have claimed that the Russian and Syrian military allegedly killed civilians and bombed schools and hospitals in Aleppo.   

However, according to French historian and journalist Laurent Henninger, actions by Russian military personnel in Syria were aimed to save as many lives as possible.

"The liberation of a city is always difficult and leads to casualties. As for me, I believe that the Russian military wanted to prevent casualties among civilians in Aleppo. The operation was inevitable. As for those accusing Russia of war crimes in Aleppo, I’d say: let’s wait and see what the Americans will do in Mosul. We already saw what United States warplanes did in Iraq, for example," Henninger told Sputnik France.

French general Pierre-Dominique d’Ornano underscored a military operation to liberate a city always takes a lot of human and military resources and it is impossible to prevent casualties on the ground.

According to political analyst and author Alexander der Valle, nearly 500 civilians were killed in the Aleppo operation.

"This is sad. But it cannot be compared to hundreds of thousands of those killed by the US military in Afghanistan and Pakistan. So, the US and its allies just cannot lecture [Moscow and Damascus] on that," der Valle pointed out.

During the press conference, Vladimir Putin also stressed that Moscow is not to blame for damaging ties with the West.

"When it comes to fostering ties with Europe, we were not the ones to ruin relations with the West and Germany. We did not introduce sanctions against Europe. We have merely responded to restrictive measures imposed on use. We will gladly remove these sanctions if our European partners lift their sanctions," the president underscored.

Gen. d’Ornano commented on the statement, saying that the West is unable to force Russia to change its policy, even with the use of sanctions.
Henninger also elaborated on the stance of the European Union and the US towards the Ukrainian crisis.

"I believe that their stance is outrageous. Western politicians and mainstream media accuse Russia of direct military involvement in eastern Ukraine. But there are no Russian troops and tank battalions there. In fact, Putin is interested in preserving Ukraine’s territorial and political integrity," the journalist said.

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