All seven humanitarian corridors in the Syrian city of Aleppo remain open around the clock to allow safe passage for civilians and militants wishing to lay down arms, the Russian General Staff said.
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The United Nations, which has earlier called for 48-hour weekly pauses for the aid deliveries, said the three-hour truce announced by Russian Federation would not be enough to meet the needs of civilians in the war-battered Syrian city.
On Wednesday the markets in opposition-held districts of Aleppo were the fullest they have been in weeks as food stalls and shops had been empty of customers after a government siege of the eastern districts led to rising prices and shortages.
The recent flare-up in fighting began in late June as government forces closed in on the Castello Road, the last route into rebel-held parts of the city.
“At a minimum, the United Nations requires a full-fledged ceasefire or weekly 48-hour humanitarian pauses to reach the millions people in need throughout Aleppo and replenish the food and medicine stocks, which are running dangerously low”, two United Nations aid officials, Yacoub El Hillo and Kevin Kennedy, said in a statement.
The Syrian city has been divided since 2012 between government forces in the west and the militants in the east.
Air strikes killed at least 19 people and wounded dozens in rebel-held Idlib province, southwest of Aleppo, on Wednesday.
Rudskoy told reporters the Syrian government forces and the Russian air groups were ready to provide security to all organizations interested in providing humanitarian aid to the residents of Aleppo.
Some 2 million people are without vital supplies around Aleppo, according to the UN.
“To meet that capacity of need you need two [road] lanes and you need to have about 48 hours to get sufficient trucks in”.
He told a briefing that humanitarian convoys will be formed near Handarat and will move on the strategic Castello road. “Is it to meet the need or will it only just to meet a very small part of the need?”
“We would welcome any pause that successfully facilitates delivering vitally needed humanitarian supplies, but such a cease-fire must be observed by all parties”, the U.S. State Department said.
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Rudskoy estimated terrorists’ losses in less than a week at over 1,000 fighters, seven tanks, eight armored personnel carriers, 29 pieces of artillery and 85 vehicles with mounted weapons.
