Russia says no air strikes on Aleppo in last seven days

Moscow said on Tuesday that Russian and Syrian planes have not conducted any air strikes on Aleppo for the last seven days despite a three-day truce ending at the weekend.

"Over the last seven days, all flights by Russian and Syrian air forces have been completely halted. The planes are not going near the city and not carrying out strikes," military spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

However, after the humanitarian pause ran out at 4pm GMT on Saturday, air strikes hit the opposition-controlled district of Sheikh Saeed, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Russia's defence spokesman said that six passages for civilians to leave rebel-held east Aleppo are still functioning and that 48 women and children left late on Monday.

Russia has ruled out early moves to renew its ceasefire in Aleppo after the brief halt ended, admitting that few had used humanitarian passages to leave the city and blaming failures by the US-led coalition.

Ahead of the ceasefire, Russian and Syrian planes had stopped bombing on Tuesday last week.

Russia is a key ally of Syria's government and began a military intervention in support of President Bashar al-Assad last September.

Syria's foreign minister, Walid Muallem, is set to hold talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Friday.

Meanwhile, the UN on Monday abandoned plans to evacuate critically injured and sick Syrians from east Aleppo, after failing to secure agreements from parties involved in the Syrian conflict.

Blaming all parties involved in the conflict for the UN abandoning medical evacuation plans, Stephen O'Brien, the UN's humanitarian aid coordinator said: "The political and military parths are trumping basic humanity once again in Syria."

According to a UN statement, UN aid agencies, the Syrian Red Crescent, the Red Cross and other medical groups, held days of negotiations to try to secure safe passage for the sick and wounded. 

With the UN abandoning any plans for medical evacuations from east Aleppo, it is uncertain what the fate will be for the dozens of Syrians who are in desperate need of evacuation from the besieged rebel-held area.

The Syrian government have been heavily criticised by NGOs and the UN for the restrictions imposed on medical evacuations from besieged parts of Syria.

This article is available in French on Middle East Eye French edition.