Putin ready to extend Aleppo truce
Merkel, Hollande up pressure on Russia, threaten sanctions
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he was ready to prolong a unilateral cease- fire in Aleppo, after tough talks in Berlin where the leaders of Germany and France refused to rule out sanctions against Moscow.
Putin said he told the European leaders that Russia was “intending to extend as far as possible” a halt to its air raids in Syria’s second city, in order to allow civilians and rebels to leave the devastated city.
The concession came as French President Francois Hollande starkly condemned the bombing as “a war crime” and German Chancellor Angela Merkel described it as “inhumane and cruel.”
The leaders of Europe’s two biggest economies also dangled the threat of sanctions, hours ahead of an EU sum- mit where Russia’s role in Syria is set to be discussed.
A pause in Russian and Syrian strikes on Aleppo held for a second day Wednesday, ahead of the brief unilateral ceasefire that started Thursday morning.
Ahead of the talks in Berlin, Moscow announced it would prolong the truce from eight to 11 hours, and said Syrian and Russian warplanes were giving Aleppo a wide berth.
But its plan has stirred scepticism in the West and UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said the truce would just be long enough to safely evacuate only 200 wounded from the devastated east of the city.
Amnesty International released new satellite images Wednesday showing more than 100 sites were hit in two weeks of bombing raids in the city.
The rights group said there was evidence Russian- made cluster munitions, banned under international conventions, had been used in civilian areas of eastern Aleppo in recent weeks, “part of a deliberate military strategy to empty the city of its inhabitants and seize control.”
Meanwhile, the Syrian army said that a planned humanitarian truce beginning in eastern Aleppo on Thursday would extend to three days, the state news agency SANA reported late Wednesday.
Wednesday’s visit was Putin’s first to Berlin since Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and sent relations with the West to a low.
Moscow’s backing for President Bashar al- Assad’s regime in its war with a wide range of rebel groups, including with air strikes in the divided northern city, has further soured ties with Europe and the US.
Describing the late night talks as “very tough,” Merkel said they “gave Germany the clear chance to define what constitutes a war crime. Bombardments are inhumane and a cruel experience for the people.”
Hollande told Putin bluntly that “what is happening in Aleppo is a war crime, one of the first demands is that the bombardments by the regime and its [ Russian] backers must end.”
The European leaders also vowed to keep up the pressure, warning of possible sanctions.