In Moscow, Konashenkov also said that since February 4, Russian warplanes carried out 510 combat missions and destroyed 888 “terrorist facilities” in several Syrian provinces including Aleppo, Daraa and Latakia where the government offensive is concentrated.
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But a top adviser to President Bashar al-Assad says Syria won’t stop its Aleppo offensive until it secures the border with Turkey.
As he prepared to meet allied defence ministers in Brussels, Defence Secretary Ash Carter said Islamic State would have to be defeated “whatever happens with the Syrian civil war”.
Russian Federation has proposed a March 1 ceasefire.
Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov said in an interview with the Interfax news agency on Thursday that Moscow opposes “any attempts” by the U.S.-led coalition to deploy troops in Syria’s north without asking the Syrian government or the UN Security Council first.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte also slammed the Russian air strikes, launched by Moscow late a year ago.
“We hope that the meeting tomorrow in Munich will help pave the way for a speedy resumption of the (Syria peace) talks”, he said. The PYD however, is a key force in US efforts to root out the Islamic State group in Syria.
“We made propositions for a ceasefire that are quite specific”, he said as he sat down for talks with his United States counterpart John Kerry in Munich. “This is what will be talked about in Munich”, he said as cited by TASS.
“There is no question… that Russia’s activities in Aleppo and in the region right now are making it much more hard to be able to come to the table and to be able to have a serious conversation”, Kerry said this week. The closed-door consultations are scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET (1630 GMT) on Wednesday and were jointly requested by New Zealand and Spain, backed by other Western powers.
Neither Kerry nor Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who met hours before the larger meeting began, would predict whether an agreement was possible.
The Kremlin rejects claims that it has abandoned diplomacy in pursuit of a military solution, saying it would continue to providing military aid to Assad to fight “terrorist groups” and accusing Syria’s opposition of walking away from the talks.
The defense ministry in a statement on Thursday listed the targets in the provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama, Deir ez-Zor, Daraa, Homs, Hasakah and Raqqa.
Officials had previously said there are 2.5 million Syrians registered in Turkey.
Tens of thousands of Syrians have fled to the Turkish border as government forces, backed by Russian bombers and Iranian fighters, bombard Aleppo, leaving the opposition there virtually surrounded.
Opposition spokesman Salim al-Muslat said US President Barack Obama could stop the Russian attacks.
Especially those living under sieges imposed by the different warring sides were “in an utterly desperate situation, with many deaths, including of young children, as a result of severe malnutrition and lack of access to medical care”, he said.
Fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and its Arab allies expelled Islamist and rebel fighters from the Minnigh air base and adjacent town, north of Aleppo, the Observatory said. Medecins Sans Frontiers spokesman Sam Taylor said that while its own hospitals in Syria had not been hit, many others had.
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Syria’s Kurds have been among the most effective forces battling IS, but they have remained largely neutral in the conflict between Assad and the rebels fighting to overthrow him.
