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