Russia blames rebels for blocking aid, evacuations in Syria’s Ghouta

Russia said on Wednesday that militants in Syria’s besieged enclave of eastern Ghouta were blocking aid and the evacuation of people who want to leave, despite Moscow’s announcement of a humanitarian corridor.

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would continue to support the Syrian army in totally defeating the “terrorist threat.”

“Russia together with the Syrian government has already announced the establishment of humanitarian corridors in eastern Ghouta,” Lavrov told the Geneva forum.

“Now it is the turn to act for militants entrenched there, who still continue shelling Damascus, blocking aid deliveries and the evacuation of those wishing to leave, as well as for their sponsors.”

Hundreds of people have been killed in 11 days of bombing by Russian-backed Syrian government forces of eastern Ghouta, the last rebel bastion near the capital. The campaign, in a swathe of rural territory and towns where 400,000 people are under siege, is one of the fiercest of a war now entering its eighth year.

The UN Security Council, including veto-wielding member Russia, passed a resolution on Saturday calling for a 30-day cease-fire across all Syria, but it excludes militant groups on the UN terrorism blacklist, which Moscow and Damascus say are the targets of their “antiterrorism campaign.”

Instead, Russia has proposed fivehour daily truces in eastern Ghouta, to allow residents to leave and aid to enter the enclave through what it describes as a humanitarian corridor.

The first such truce, on Tuesday, failed when bombing and shelling resumed after a brief lull. Moscow and Damascus blamed the rebels for attacking the corridor, which the rebels deny.

Lavrov’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that Russia was doing its part to establish the cease-fire, but other countries needed to act as well.

Asked about the deaths of children in the bombing, she said children from families supporting President Bashar alAssad had also been killed, and Russia had entered the war in 2015 to protect them and to stop the violence spreading to Russia.