Putin defies UN vote for month-long truce in Syria
Five-hour daily ceasefire arrangement differs from council’s decision
Vladimir Putin defied the UN Monday by ordering a series of brief daily ceasefires in the besieged enclave of Eastern Ghouta but rejecting a 30-day truce across all of Syria.
Nine days into an intensive bombing campaign that has killed more than 500 civilians, the Russian president said he would allow for a daily five-hour “humanitarian pause.” lasting from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day.
He also said Russia would begin setting up a “humanitarian corridor” to allow some of the 400,000 civilians inside Eastern Ghouta to leave the area for regime-held neighbourhoods.
“On the instructions of the Russian president, with the goal of avoiding civilian casualties in Eastern Ghouta, from Feb. 27 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. there will be a humanitarian pause,” said Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister.
Putin’s order came two days after all 15 members of the UN Security Council, including Russia, voted unanimously to impose a monthlong nationwide ceasefire across Syria. The UN also demanded that combatants allow aid to be delivered to besieged areas and for medical teams to evacuate the wounded. Putin’s instructions did not appear to address either of those issues.
Even a brief lull in the fighting could go some way to easing the suffering in Eastern Ghouta, giving residents time to leave makeshift basement bomb shelters to find food and supplies.
But people were deeply skeptical as the news of Putin’s ceasefire order spread. “The Russians are laughing at the world,” said one medic. “They don’t care about
human blood and they don’t care about the resolution of the UN Security Council.”
Activists said bombing was slightly less intense yesterday than it had been before the UN Security Council vote on Saturday. But aerial attacks continued and ground fighting still raged between rebel forces and regime troops.
On Sunday, activists reported a suspected poison gas attack in eastern Ghouta’s town of Sheifouniyeh,
where at least one person — an infant — was killed.
The attack also left several people and paramedics with breathing difficulties, according to the opposition’s Syrian Civil Defence, a group known as the White Helmets. The Ghouta Media Center, an activist collective, also reported the incident, saying chlorine gas was used. The Observatory said it could not confirm the reports.
Jonathan Allen, the British
ambassador to the UN, said Russia and all other Security Council members are “obliged” to do everything possible to implement the UN resolution.
The Russian announcement of five-hour daily pauses in eastern Ghouta “is not compliance, that is not implementation of the resolution passed on Saturday, but it does show that it can be implemented,” Allen said.
— With files from The Associated Press