MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia has been carrying out regular humanitarian aid deliveries to Syria, where people are suffering from the consequences of ongoing fighting between government forces and terrorists, including Daesh and the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham terrorist groups, both banned in Russia.
"In the village of Wadi Qandil more than 100 families have lost their breadwinners during the battles with terrorists, today we brought them over 250 grocery sets with rice, flour, sugar, canned goods, tea and cereal," Col. Vyacheslav Rumyantsev told reporters.
He added that this week humanitarian convoys delivered another 500 sets to two settlements in the province of Hama.
The Syrian civil war has been raging for six years, with government forces fighting against both Syrian opposition groups who strive to overthrow President Bashar Assad, and numerous extremist and terrorist groups.
Russia and Turkey are the guarantors of a nationwide Syrian ceasefire regime that came into force on December 30, 2016 and has been holding up in general, despite continued reports of violations. The UN Security Council passed a resolution in December 2016 supporting the effort.
At the latest Astana meeting on Syria on May 3-4, three ceasefire guarantor states finalized and signed a memorandum on establishment of four safe zones in Syria. The four zones span the northwestern Idlib province and parts of the neighboring Latakia, Hama and Aleppo, the north of the central Homs province, Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, as well as southern Daraa and Quneitra regions. The memorandum came into force on May 6.
