The destruction of Aleppo, especially the city's eastern neighborhoods that are tenuously held by anti-regime rebels, is largely pushed out of the nightly news by the fierce fighting around the presidential race in the United States. A few doughty reporters and photographers venture into Syria, but usually the cameras stay at a safe distance, so that much of what we see are the flashes and smoke from shells and bombs bursting in its cities. At other times, we see smartphone video of haggard people running for shelter or transporting the wounded, screaming in pain, to hospitals where there is little help for them.
There's a Western consensus that the Russians are assisting their Syrian allies, President Bashar Assad's forces, in pounding the city, and — with some diplomatic reservations, especially by the United Nations — that their jets destroyed an aid convoy last month. The U.N. Security Council the weekend before last heard blasts against Russia from Western powers. U.S. Ambassador Samantha Powers said that, "Instead of pursuing peace, Russia and Assad make war. Instead of helping get life-saving aid to civilians, Russia and Assad are bombing the humanitarian convoys, hospitals and first responders who are trying desperately to keep people alive." U.K. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft went further: Russia and Assad, he said, had "unleashed a new hell on Aleppo. Russia is partnering with the Syrian regime to carry out war crimes."
As the Syrian ambassador was called to speak, Rycroft led a walkout of Powers and the French ambassador, Francois Delattre. Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin then denied that Russia was involved.