Russia angrily accused the United Nations’ aid chief of bias and arrogance on Wednesday after he told the Security Council that Aleppo had become a “kill zone” under Russian and Syrian bombs.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the United Nations should provide evidence that Russia is conducting aerial bombardments since the introduction of moratorium on air strikes.
“The moratorium on flights has been in place for eight days. Give us at least one proof or leave those narratives for a romance you would probably write later,” Churkin told the UN Security Council met on Wednesday to hear the report of the UN Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien on the situation in Syria.
The Russian ambassador further stated the parties to the conflict have not had the moral fortitude to allow medical evacuations from the besieged city, all the while “Syrian and Russian forces from air and land demonstrated a willingness to protect what meager medical facilities still function inside eastern Aleppo.”
The ambassador blamed Takfiri terrorists for the failure at the weekend of a UN plan to evacuate the wounded from Aleppo and charged that the UN official was not objectively presenting the facts.
“Please leave this kind of report to a novel that you might write one day,” said Churkin.
The Russian ambassador was hitting back at UN aid chief Stephen O’Brien, who said he was incandescent with rage” over the council’s failure to take action, deploring that “nothing is actually happening to stop the war, stop the suffering.”
With food growing scarce, “civilians are being bombed by Syrian and Russian forces, and if they survive that, they will starve tomorrow,” said O’Brien.
“Aleppo has essentially become a kill zone.”
Source: Agencies
