Russia to not extend 'pause' in Syria airstrikes

Russia is not willing to prolong its “humanitarian pause" in airstrikes in Syria's Aleppo province unless opposition groups comply with the agreement, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Monday.

Speaking to the media in the capital Moscow, Ryabkov said: "Nothing of what has been required in the past three days took place, so now the issue of renewing the humanitarian pause is irrelevant."

On Friday, Russian envoy to the UN in Geneva announced that the “humanitarian pause" in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo had been extended until Oct. 24.

However, Ryabkov said: “"The humanitarian pause ended on Saturday. It is clear that in order to return to it, our opponents need to ensure the adequate behavior of anti-government troops that, in particular, disrupted the medical evacuation intended during the preceding humanitarian pause."

Hundreds of civilians have reportedly been killed or injured in Russian and Syrian airstrikes since Sept. 19, when the Bashar al-Assad regime announced the end of a week-long truce.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when Assad cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the "Arab Spring" uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-torn country, according to UN figures.