President Bashar al-Assad has also offered amnesty for rebels who surrender to authorities in the next three months, the official SANA news agency reported.
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“On behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, today, (we will) start a large-scale humanitarian operation together with the Syrian government to help civilians in Aleppo”, Shoigu said in televised comments.
The amnesty offer to rebels who give up their weapons and surrender within three months was issued through a decree on Thursday, the state Sana news agency reported.
The Syrian army and its allies have surrounded the divided city of Aleppo, targeting opposition fighters and cutting off supply routes into rebel-held areas.
Fliers dropped over eastern Aleppo showed four corridors leading to government areas, but the media office for the opposition’s rescue group in east Aleppo claimed no safe corridors have been opened.
If the corridors were established, he said, it was critical that their security was guaranteed by all parties and that people could use them voluntarily.
The U.N. humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien said “no one can be forced to flee, by any specific route or to any particular location”.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said the plan must ensure that civilians who leave voluntarily can access shelter and humanitarian aid, “and that families are not split up”.
He said the decision was taken to “first and foremost to ensure the safety of Aleppo residents”.
Syria’s and Russia’s creation of humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians besieged in eastern Aleppo in Syria does not relieve them of their obligation to avoid civilian casualties and allow aid to those who remain.
“The UN and humanitarian partners know what to do”.
United Nations special envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura speaks during a news conference in Vienna, Austria, May 17, 2016.
Thousands of captured rebels and Assad opponents are suspected to have been killed and tortured during the course of the brutal six year civil war.
Meanwhile the United States says it is assessing if a coalition strike killed civilians.
Khandakani said the offensive and siege is depriving him of his “brief feelings of independence and freedom” living in the part of the city under rebel control since 2012.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch accused Assad’s regime and Russian Federation of extensively using banned cluster munitions against the rebels since late May.
Entrances to the corridors were effectively shut in rebel areas inside the city on Friday, the activist group said.
“I also want to be able to have my colleagues on the humanitarian side to analyze the information they may be getting on how this Russian initiative fits in with a humanitarian initiative”, he said.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused Assad’s regime and Russian Federation of extensively using banned cluster munitions against the rebels since late May.
There have been several presidential amnesty offers in recent years.
The army, backed by allied militia forces and air support from Syrian and Russian jets, has taken more ground on the northern edge of the city, around the Castello road which leads out towards Turkey.
Shoigu said Putin, in response to a request by Kerry, ordered Gen. Stanislav Gadzhimagomedov and a group of experts to the Swiss city, which has hosted several rounds of Syrian talks and worldwide negotiators trying to resolve the crisis.
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