Russia has notified the UN of the termination of interaction through the humanitarian deconflicting system in Syria, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock announced on Monday at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Syria.
"On June 23, the Russian Federation notified the UN that it would no longer participate in the humanitarian warning system that the UN and its humanitarian partners used to share information with the parties to the conflict," he said.
"We will discuss this with our humanitarian partners in Syria and with the Russian Federation," Lowcock added. "The purpose of warnings is to ensure the safety of humanitarian assistance by informing parties to conflicts of the location of humanitarian objects or movements."
He recalled that regardless of participation in the deconflicting mechanism, the parties to the conflict must comply with international humanitarian law.
In September, Russia's permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, warned of the danger that terrorists could hide in objects that they themselves had asked to be included in the deconflicting list. In particular, he did not rule out that Jabhat al-Nusra (banned in the Russian Federation) terrorists might hide in some declared humanitarian facilities.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Geert Vanden Wijngaert / AP / TASS
Based on materials from RIA Novosti