HMEYMIM (Sputnik) — Belgian lawmakers visited on Monday the Jibreen refugee camp in the Syrian Aleppo and hailed the humanitarian assistance provided by Russia there, Frank Creyelman of the the right-wing Vlaams Belang party said.
"I expected to see Aleppo in ruins, and that there is not a single survivor here. This is according to our media. Instead, I can see how Russia does the work which should be done by the European countries, for example, feeding the hungry children," Creyelman said.
He added that the anti-Russia sanctions must be lifted as Moscow providing help in the country should not suffer itself.
"We need to lift the sanctions, not only against the Syrian government, but also against Russia. Because your country, which has been providing humanitarian aid here, suffers from the European sanctions itself," the lawmaker said.
Russia has been providing humanitarian aid to Syria since October 2015.
Syria's civil war between government forces and a wide range of insurgents, including opposition groups and terrorists, such as al-Nusra Front and Daesh, both outlawed in Russia, has raged for some five years and has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Aleppo, fought over since 2012, was liberated and fully retaken by the government in late December.
