The photo from 2017 shows a street in Aleppo
Image: dpa
When Moscow offers “humanitarian corridors” in Ukraine, it stirs up bitter memories among opponents of Bashar al-Assad. They warn against trusting Russian promises.
ZBombed blocks of flats, civilians in daily fear of death, surrounded, cut off from electricity supply and food supplies – the images and reports from Ukrainian cities bring back painful memories for those who went through this years ago: the opponents of Bashar al-Assad. When Moscow now announces ceasefires and “humanitarian corridors” in Ukraine, the fate of one city in particular comes to mind: Aleppo, whose brutal siege by the regime ended at the end of 2016.
Damascus triumphed after Russian and Syrian bombers unleashed apocalyptic destruction on the northern Syrian trading center. In Syria, not least in Aleppo, Putin not only showed that he was willing to use the suffering of civilians as a weapon. Russian war crimes, such as targeted airstrikes on hospitals, are well documented. The ruler in Moscow had also shown that for him military force and diplomacy as a means of warfare go hand in hand. Experts and representatives of Assad’s opponents, who have had many bitter experiences with Russian offers in the name of humanitarianism, are therefore issuing urgent warnings these days.