Russia gives 250,000 people less than a week to leave east Aleppo or face MASSACRE
Russia threatens to "annihilate" anyone remaining ahead of final showdown between regime troops and rebels
FINAL warnings were being issued today to tens of thousands of civilians trapped in Aleppo - as Russian backed Syrian regime troops prepare to close on for the kill.
Anti-regime rebels are today calling on immediate five-day ceasefire and the evacuation of civilians and wounded.
But President Bashar al-Assad - who is backed powerful pal Vladimir Putin - is not willing to budge and wants the rebels to surrender or face death.
Blood-thirsty street-by-street battles like those fought in Stalingrad during World War 2 seem likely after five weeks of relentless bombing.
In the past few days Russian helicopters have been dropping menacing leaflets threatening annihilation for the 250,000 residents and the rebels among them.
They read: “If you do not leave these areas urgently you will be annihilated.
“You know that everyone has given up on you.
“They left you to face your doom.”
Leaflets like this have been dropped by Russia on Aleppo on several occasions in the past five weeks.
Usually this is before a blitz of shells, bombs or cruise missiles from destroyers off the Syrian coast.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reportedly said yesterday: “If somebody refuses to leave Aleppo on good terms, he will be eliminated…there is no other way out.”
Leaflets like this have been dropped by Russia on Aleppo on several occasions in the past five weeks.
Usually this is before a blitz of shells, bombs or cruise missiles from destroyers off the Syrian coast.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reportedly said yesterday: “If somebody refuses to leave Aleppo on good terms, he will be eliminated…there is no other way out.”
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As reported Russian aircraft carrier that caused a storm when it sailed past the White Cliffs of Dover on its way to the Syrian coast has turned out to be a national embarrassment.
Satellite imagery published in Jane’s Defence Weekly shows eight Russian Su-33 aircraft and one MiG-29 jet - usually aboard the carrier - parked up at the Kremlin’s Humaymin air base in Latakia province, western Syria.
But despite this raids on Aleppo have been becoming more and more intense.
Aid agencies say hundreds of civilians have died agonising deaths and many more have been horribly maimed.
One resident told Reuters today: "It's been a tragedy here for a long time, but I've never seen this kind of pressure on the city - you can't rest for even five minutes, the bombardment is constant.
"Any movement in the streets and there is bombardment (on that area) immediately."
Meanwhile, a Russian colonel Ruslan Galitskiy, Commander of the 5th Guards Tank Brigade, was killed in action in Syria, it was revealed today.
Ukrainians accuse the colonel of being involved in coordinating militias in the breakaway ethnic Russian region of Donbas.
It is widely believed that Russia is behind the insurrection in east Ukraine using what is known as hybrid warfare.
As reported, a top UK general has warned that once Putin is finished with Aleppo he could turn his attention to the Baltics.
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