LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union on Monday condemned Russia’s air campaign in Syria, saying it may be guilty of war crimes, and it vowed to impose more sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference following the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit in the western state of Goa, India, October 16, 2016. Sputnik/Kremlin/Alexei Druzhinin via REUTERS

Calling for an immediate ceasefire in rebel-held east Aleppo, the European Union’s 28 foreign ministers sought to show their anger at the Russian-backed campaign, which has killed several hundred people including dozens of children since the collapse of a truce brokered by Russia and the United States.

“Since the beginning of the offensive by the regime and its allies, notably Russia, the intensity and scale of the aerial bombardment of eastern Aleppo is clearly disproportionate,” the EU said in a statement. Some 275,000 people are believed to be trapped in the area.

The bloc berated Moscow for “the deliberate targeting of hospitals, medical personnel, schools and essential infrastructure,” saying that targeting civilians with barrel bombs and chemical weapons “may amount to war crimes”.

The EU said the atrocities in Syria should be referred to the International Criminal Court, although it was unclear how or when.

It called for an immediate end to conflict, so a peace process could start after almost six years of war, seeking a wider role for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to talk to regional powers including Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

While the European Union has no military role in the conflict, the statement marked its harshest criticism of Russia’s role in Syria and came after days of negotiations and resistance from Russia’s allies in Europe.

It was Europe’s second attempt to isolate Russia diplomatically this month, after France and Spain led a push for a U.N.-backed ceasefire in New York, which Russia vetoed.

As food supplies run low in Aleppo, the scale of the destruction unleashed by the Syrian government’s Russian- and Iranian-backed offensive has horrified even Moscow’s long-time backers in Athens, Budapest and Nicosia, diplomats said.

Russia is Europe’s biggest energy supplier, and relations have sunk to lows not seen since the Cold War over the crisis in Ukraine. Some countries, including Austria and parts of the German government, worry about worsening ties even further.

But France and Britain pushed hard for the support of all the bloc’s 28 governments, hoping that a unified chastisement of Russia would help bring an end to the bombing since peace talks between Moscow and Washington broke down earlier this month.

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the European Union had a moral obligation to act and “to stop the massacre of the population of Aleppo.”

A briefing by U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura at the meeting in Luxembourg appeared to help swing doubters.

De Mistura, who has been at the heart of peace efforts in Geneva, warned that Aleppo was at risk of being reduced to rubble. “Between now and December, if we don’t find a solution for Aleppo, Aleppo won’t be there anymore,” De Mistura said.

SANCTIONS, BUT NOT ON RUSSIA

The European Union also said it was ready to put more Syrians under travel bans and asset freezes, suspecting them of directing attacks on civilians in Aleppo. That is in addition to the EU’s existing sanctions list and its oil and arms embargo.

The EU has a list of 208 people and 69 companies under sanctions, and that was likely to grow to pressure the Assad government and those benefiting from it, diplomats said.

In their statement, EU foreign ministers said the EU will act “swiftly ... with the aim of imposing further restrictive measures against Syria, targeting Syrian individuals and entities supporting the regime as long as the repression continues.”

Britain has also raised the prospect of sanctions on Russians involved in the Syrian conflict, diplomats told Reuters although that had less support on Monday.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who held talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday in London, said London was considering imposing additional sanctions on Assad’s supporters, without naming Russia.

Spain would back Russian sanctions if they helped “bring Russia’s position closer to ours” acting Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said.

European Union leaders will discuss Russia and possibly talk about new sanctions at a summit on Thursday. Russia’s closest EU allies - Greece, Cyprus and Hungary - oppose such penalties.

Austria, a transit point for flows for Russian gas to Europe, also voiced its opposition on Monday.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson (C) takes part in a meeting on the situation in Syria at Lancaster House in London October 16, 2016. REUTERS/JUSTIN TALLIS/Pool

“The idea to have additional sanctions against Russia would be wrong,” Austria’s Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz told reporters. “We do not need a further escalation,” he said.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier rejected imposing more punitive measures on Russia, although a German newspaper cited sources saying that Chancellor Angela Merkel favoured the idea.

The West imposed broad economic sanctions on Moscow over its 2014 annexation of Crimea and its support for rebels in Ukraine.</s>Members of the Syrian civil defence, known as the White Helmets, search for victims amid the rubble of a destroyed building following reported air strikes in the rebel-held Qatarji neighbourhood of the northern city of Aleppo, on Monday (AFP photo)

ALEPPO — Russia on Monday announced an eight-hour "humanitarian" ceasefire in Aleppo later this week, as the EU warned that the Syrian regime's Moscow-backed assault on the city could amount to war crimes.

The United Nations and European Union welcomed the announcement, but said Thursday's planned pause in fighting needed to be longer to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid.

In the latest violence, dozens of civilians including 12 members of the same family were killed in heavy bombardment of rebel-held eastern sectors of the embattled city, a monitoring group said.

"We have taken a decision not to waste time and to introduce 'humanitarian pauses', mainly for the free passage of civilians, evacuation of the sick and wounded and withdrawal of fighters," senior Russian military officer Sergei Rudskoi told a press briefing in Moscow.

The ceasefire would run from 0800 to 1600 local time (0500 GMT to 1300 GMT) “in the area of Aleppo”, Rudskoi said.

“During this period the Russian air force and Syrian government troops will halt air strikes and firing from any other types of weapons.”

Russia’s announcement, to which there was no immediate reaction from rebels, came as the EU condemned the ferocious air war waged on Aleppo over the past three weeks.

“Since the beginning of the offensive by the regime and its allies, notably Russia, the intensity and scale of the aerial bombardment of eastern Aleppo is clearly disproportionate,” EU foreign ministers said in Luxembourg.

“The deliberate targeting of hospitals, medical personnel, schools and essential infrastructure, as well as the use of barrel bombs, cluster bombs, and chemical weapons, constitute a catastrophic escalation of the conflict... and may amount to war crimes,” they said in a statement.

The EU ministers said they would also press ahead with extending sanctions against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, but stopped short of threatening measures against Russia.

EU Foreign Affairs Chief Federica Mogherini called Moscow’s announcement “positive” but not long enough to allow humanitarian aid to reach the besieged city.

“It can be a start... for sure it is a positive step,” she told reporters at the close of the ministerial meeting in Luxembourg.

“The latest assessment from the aid agencies [however] is that 12 hours is needed so work is needed to find common ground,” she added.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric also welcomed the truce announcement but stressed the “need for a longer pause in order to get the aid in”.

Once Syria’s thriving commercial hub, Aleppo has been ravaged by air raids and intensifying clashes as regime forces fight to capture the rebel-held east.

Russian air support for the onslaught — which has destroyed hospitals and other civilian infrastructure — has spurred the accusations of potential war crimes.

Monday’s air strikes on Aleppo killed 13 civilians in the rebel-held district of Marjeh, including 12 members of the same family, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“Nine of the family members were minors, including a 17-year-old girl and her newborn,” said the Britain-based group’s head Rami Abdel Rahman.

The deaths brought to 47 the number of people killed since Sunday morning in east Aleppo, the observatory said.

The deadliest raids were overnight on a residential block in Qaterji, where the Observatory said Russian strikes killed 18 civilians.



“There are still families under the ruins. We pulled out seven or eight bodies and dozens of wounded,” said ambulance driver Abu Mohammed.

More than 430 people have been killed in bombardment on the eastern half since the assault on Aleppo was announced on September 22, according to the observatory.

Another 82 people have died in rebel fire on government-held neighbourhoods in the west.

Further west in Aleppo province, Russian raids killed 23 people in the village of Uwaijal on Monday, said the observatory.

US Secretary of State John Kerry met his counterparts from Russia, Iran, and Syria’s neighbours in Switzerland on Saturday, and travelled on to London for meetings with the British and other European foreign ministers.

Kerry said the Lausanne meeting produced new ideas on reviving a Syrian truce, after a ceasefire jointly brokered by Moscow and Washington broke down last month, but said high-level contacts to flesh them out would continue on Monday.

Syria’s war has devolved from a widespread protest movement against Assad’s rule to a multi-front war between rebels, jihadists, Kurds and regime forces.

Turkish-backed rebels dealt a major symbolic blow to the Daesh terror group on Sunday by overrunning the northern Syrian town of Dabiq.</s>With military options all but eliminated, the United States and Britain on Sunday said they were considering new sanctions to pressure the Syrian and Russian governments to halt an offensive against rebel-held parts of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.

While the close allies said diplomacy was their primary focus, the tone was tougher than Saturday’s message from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry after he launched a new diplomatic effort to resolve the 5 1/2-year civil war.

But the specific threats he brandished Sunday — from harsher economic penalties to international prosecution for alleged perpetrators of war crimes — have been raised repeatedly before.

“It’s easy to say, ‘Where is the action?“’ Kerry said. “But what is the action?”

“I haven’t seen a big appetite from governments in Europe to declare war,” he noted dryly after talks in London that included diplomats from France, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and the European Union. All oppose Syrian President Bashar Assad’s long-term control over his country and all are angry over a year-old Russian military intervention that has contributed to thousands of deaths and harrowing scenes of destruction in Aleppo.

Kerry and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson emerged from the discussions declaring that all options are on the table to stop the bloodshed. But they expressed misgivings with a military approach.

Kerry said countries have an obligation not to “light a fire” under a conflict that could expand into a larger regional war or one that draws in superpowers against one another. Johnson described the use of armed force as a drastic step.

The two appeared more affirmative when it came to the possibility of “ratcheting up” economic pressure on Syria and Russia, as Johnson described it.

He decried the “terrible, medieval siege” of the city, even as he expressed doubt about the ability of Syria and Russia to drive the opposition from Aleppo. More than 10,000 fighters remained in the rebel-held eastern part of the city, Johnson said, as well as a quarter-million civilians whose lives are at risk.

Johnson called on the U.S. and Europe to make Russia “feel the consequences” of their military campaign.

Kerry confirmed the U.S. was studying additional sanctions, and he accused Russia of participating in “crimes against humanity on a daily basis.”

But both men expressed some hope in the new diplomatic path Kerry forged a day earlier in Lausanne, Switzerland. Those talks involved Russia and Iran, Assad’s two chief backers, in addition to Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Qatar, Iraq, Egypt and Jordan.

Kerry said Saturday that the result of the 4 1/2-hour meeting was “exactly what we wanted” in terms of new ideas and a commitment to new talks in the coming days.

The statement mainly testified to low expectations after last month’s quick collapse of a U.S.-Russian cease-fire, followed by the end of talks on U.S.-Russian a military partnership against Islamic State and al-Qaida militants.

President Barack Obama and the Pentagon have made clear their opposition to any U.S. military strikes against Assad’s military. The U.S. is uneasy with providing more advanced weaponry to the anti-Assad rebels because of their links to extremist groups.

The effect sanctions might have also is unclear. They failed to reverse Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea territory in 2014. And several of America’s European partners have expressed unease over the prospect of having to impose new and possibly costly penalties.</s>People remove belongings from a damaged site after a Sunday air strike in the besieged, rebel-held Al Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria, on Monday (Reuters photo)

LUXEMBOURG — The European Union on Monday strongly condemned Russia for the bombardment of the Syrian city of Aleppo, saying air strikes by Moscow and Damascus could amount to war crimes.

“Since the beginning of the offensive by the regime and its allies, notably Russia, the intensity and scale of the aerial bombardment of eastern Aleppo is clearly disproportionate,” EU foreign ministers said in a statement after talks in Luxembourg.

“The deliberate targeting of hospitals, medical personnel, schools and essential infrastructure, as well as the use of barrel bombs, cluster bombs and chemical weapons, constitute a catastrophic escalation of the conflict... and may amount to war crimes,” they said.

The EU ministers said they would also press ahead with extending sanctions against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, but stopped short of threatening measures against Russia over the conflict.

The reference to war crimes is potentially significant since if pressed, a case could be taken to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The statement noted the EU’s “conviction that the situation in Syria should be referred to the ICC and renews its call to the UN Security Council to take action in this respect”.

Ministers also called urgently for an immediate ceasefire in Aleppo to allow humanitarian aid to reach the ancient frontline city, which has been pummelled mercilessly by Assad’s forces and then by his longtime Russian ally since September last year.

The EU “strongly condemns the excessive and disproportionate attacks by the regime and its allies”, it said.

As the EU statement was coming through, Moscow announced an eight-hour cessation of hostilities for Thursday, stealing the limelight in the diplomatic battle.

The EU ministers said the bloc “firmly believes that there can be no military solution to the conflict”, and called directly on Russia to agree a ceasefire to open the way to peace talks.

EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini said earlier Monday that ministers could consider additional Syria sanctions, but ruled out imposing restrictive measures on Russia.

The statement made no reference to this possibility, although Britain and the United States had said in talks in London on Sunday that they should be considered.
The European Union condemns Russia's air campaign in Syria, saying it may be guilty of war crimes, and it vowed to impose more sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad's government. The bloc's 28 foreign ministers sought to show their anger at the Russian-backed campaign, which has killed several hundred people including dozens of children since the collapse of a truce brokered by Russia and the United States.