February 26, 2018

Vladimir Putin has ordered a daily five-hour “humanitarian pause” in the besieged Syrian enclave of eastern Ghouta, effectively replacing a United Nationssecurity council resolution that had demanded a month-long ceasefire in the embattled region.

The Russian president’s move, which was announced by his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, highlighted in stark terms Russia’s primacy in Syrian affairs and the UN’s failure to impose an end to the fighting in the area bordering Damascus.

More than 500 people have been killed in eight days of one of the deadliest bombing campaigns by the regime of Bashar al-Assad and his allies during the seven-year war.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/26/syria-eastern-ghouta-assad-forces-un-ceasefire