Russia vetoed an extension to a vitally needed United Nations humanitarian aid program for Syria, as aid groups and diplomats warned of potential catastrophe.
A UN program to get food, medicine, shelter, and other aid to some 4 million people in opposition-controlled northwest Syria has been in place since 2014.
Diplomats have struggled to extend the current UN Security Council mandate authorizing the mechanism, which expires on July 10. That program routes aid from Turkey via the Bab al-Hawa border crossing.
Russia, which supports the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, signaled that it wants to close Bab al-Hawa. Russia's main argument is that the UN aid operation via Bab al-Hawa violates Syria's sovereignty and says more aid should be delivered from inside the country.
Moscow on July 8 vetoed a draft resolution by Ireland and Norway that would have continued the program for another year.
Russia's Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said the only solution that Moscow would not veto was its own, via an alternative route.
Opposition groups fear that sending food and other aid from within Syria itself would allow it to fall under government control.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the Security Council last month to extend the aid operation. "We cannot give up on the people of Syria," he said.
The United States’ ambassador to the UN condemned Russia’s veto, calling it “a dark, dark day in the Security Council. “
“I have long said this is a life-and-death issue,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.
The United Nations said last week that in the first 10 years of the Syrian conflict, which started in 2011, more than 300,000 civilians were killed.