Putin pauses ‘hell on earth’

Vladimir Putin’s unilateral declaration of a daily five-hour humanitarian pause in the “hell on earth” bombardment of the Syrian opposition enclave of Eastern Ghouta, though inadequate, hopefully will help alleviate the sufferings of the 400,000 people besieged there. In announcing the pause through Russia’s defence minister, however, Mr Putin left no doubt about the extent to which the Kremlin is calling the shots in Syria. He must, therefore, share the blame for the devastation in Eastern Ghouta, once Damascus’s bread basket, which is now being compared to the unspeakable horrors of Srebrenica and Aleppo.

More than 400,000 people, many of them children, have been killed in the past seven years of the Syrian civil war. Five million have fled abroad and 6.3 million are displaced internally. The onslaught against Eastern Ghouta, where 500 people were killed last weekend and hundreds more in the past month, has added another terrible dimension to the conflict. Ostensibly the ruthless assault, including the reported use of chlorine gas chemical weapons, is being perpetrated by forces loyal to president Bashar al-Assad, aided by his Iranian and Hezbollah allies. But when it came to announcing the daily pause following the UN Security Council’s call for a 30-day ceasefire, the response came not from Assad but Mr Putin.

Russia, after rescuing Assad from the jaws of defeat, is asserting itself in Syria in a drive to reclaim the strategic influence it wielded across the Middle East in the Soviet era. Russia, Turkey and Iran brokered last month’s Sochi summit about Syria’s future, with the US and Western powers ignored. Mr Putin cannot continue the pretence that Russia is not directly involved in the destruction of Eastern Ghouta. Nothing justifies what is unfolding.

The Obama administration’s gross mishandling of Syria saw the US and the West lose what little influence they had in sorting out the civil war. But they must pressure Mr Putin to compel Assad to stop the bombardment. After the horrors of Srebrenica and Aleppo the world pledged “never again”. Yet that is what we are seeing.