MOSCOW (Sputnik) — A delegation of lawmakers from the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, did not see any Western humanitarian organizations in the eastern part of the Syrian city of Aleppo during their visit last week, Aleksander Yushchenko, a member of the delegation, said Monday.
"We did not see any Western humanitarian organizations, but we have seen immense, almost nonstop work of the Russian center for Syrian reconciliation, as well as other humanitarian organizations that constantly deliver water and hot meals, providing the necessities for children," Yushchenko said at a press conference in Moscow.
He said Western media made provocative statements and circulated fake images of children in the eastern Aleppo dying.
"We saw with our own eyes that children are now going back to schools that they have not attended for five years," the lawmaker added.
The members of the Belgian parliamentary delegation, which also visited Syria last week, said that Western media presented situation in Aleppo as hopeless, ignoring the fact of provision of humanitarian aid by Russia.
Russia has been providing the civilians of the crisis-torn Middle Eastern country with humanitarian aid for months. According to the reconciliation center, Russian specialists have provided medical assistance to more than 7,000 people since the beginning of the humanitarian actions.
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.
