A senior Russian official claimed in a recent interview with Rossiya 24 television that the country's airstrikes in Syria have resulted in no civilian casualties.
"The Military Space Forces have never hit civilian targets in Syria," said Viktor Bondarev, Colonel General and commander-in-chief of Russia's Air Force, according to Reuters.
The claim directly contradicts a report by Amnesty International that states Russian air strikes in Syria "have killed hundreds of civilians and caused massive destruction in residential areas."
The statement by the Russian Government marks a shift from earlier statements employing semantic gymnastics to outright denial. A previous statement made by Russian Minister of Defense Sergey Shoygu referring to sea-launched cruise missile strikes that killed five civilians and destroyed residential buildings claimed that "all targets were destroyed and civilian objects were not damaged."
Focusing on six attacks in the provinces of Homs, Idlib, and Aleppo between September and November, the Amnesty International report counts at least 200 civilian casualties. While Russia maintains that its airstrikes target Islamic State forces, Western officials and Syrian rebels report that the majority of the country's airstrikes have landed in central and northern Syria, an area where ISIS does not have a strong presence, according to the Associated Press.
Responding to a video released by the Russian Ministry of Defense, Peter Felstead, editor of Jane's Defense Weekly, stated that the clips show "no evidence of precision targeting; some munitions, in fact, looked as if they struck open fields."
A message apparently issued by the Islamic State on Saturday said that airstrikes by Russia and the U.S.-led coalition have had little to no effect on their Syrian operations.
The United Nations plans to attempt to broker a peace deal on Jan. 25 in Geneva, and their attempts at conflict resolution in Syria have had little success so far. Most recently, an agreement to transport ISIS and rebel fighters away from conflict-heavy areas fell through this weekend after a Russian air strike killed al-Nusra leader Zaran Alloush.
