Russia reportedly has proposed a March 1 truce as the Syrian government ramps up its military offensive on Aleppo.

Syrian refugees wait for food near a refugee camp in Bab Al-Salama city, in northern Syria, on February 6 [Sedat Suna/EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Russia is ready to discuss a possible ceasefire in Syria, an official said on Thursday, before a crucial meeting of major powers in Germany on how to end the five-year-old Syrian civil war.

“We are ready to discuss the modalities of a ceasefire in Syria,” Gennady Gatilov, the deputy foreign minister, was cited by the TASS news agency as saying. “This is what will be talked about in Munich.”

Citing an unnamed Western official, the Reuters news agency reported late on Wednesday that Russia proposed a ceasefire to begin on March 1.

International powers, including Russia, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Iran, were to meet on Thursday in Germany in a bid to resurrect Syrian peace talks inGeneva that were postponed earlier this month.

A Syrian government offensive around the city of Aleppo – backed by Russian air strikes – has sent tens of thousands of people fleeing to the Turkish border, putting the Geneva talks in jeopardy.

Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from Moscow, said that the US and its allies would probably view Russia’s truce offer with scepticism.

“The US concerns are that this gives the offensive that’s currently ongoing in the Aleppo region more time to push the rebels back, possibly going so far as a full military victory,” said Challands.

Meanwhile, the Russian defence ministry lashed out at the US-led coalition in Syria for refusing to provide intelligence on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets there.

Major-General Igor Konashenkov, the defence ministry spokesman, said in a statement on Thursday that Russia has shared its own intelligence with the US that has “gratefully taken” it – but has not reciprocated.

Konashenkov said Moscow has repeatedly asked Washington and its allies for intelligence in response to the accusations that Russians are targeting the “wrong objects”.

At least 50,000 Syrians have fled the fighting in Aleppo, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday, adding that water supplies have been disrupted in some parts of the province.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Wednesday that at least 500 people have been killed since the Syrian government, backed by Russian air strikes,  launched a major offensive  from the north of Aleppo on February 1.

The Observatory said  that among those killed were “89 civilians, including 23 children, 143 pro-government fighters, 274 rebels and foreign fighters”.

Russian air strikes that began in September have tilted the war in favour of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

The Syrian government holds the west of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, while the rebels hold the east, but the situation is largely reversed in the countryside.

The latest diplomatic efforts to end the Syrian conflict through peace talks were suspended in Geneva earlier this month until February 25, after UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said that more work was needed to make progress.

The Syrian opposition has said that it will not attend the scheduled talks unless the government ends its air strikes and lifts the sieges on cities and towns.

The peace talks are meant to develop a “road map” to end the conflict of almost five years that has resulted in more than 250,000 Syrians being killed.

The conflict has also displaced millions more and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing as refugees to Europe.

Government offensive intensifies around Syria’s largest city, threatening to cut off rebel supply routes in the north.

A man rides a motorcycle past damaged buildings in al-Myassar neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria January 31, 2016. Picture taken January 31, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail

by Al Jazeera

A Syrian military offensive backed by heavy Russian air strikes threatened to cut critical rebel supply lines into the northern city of Aleppo, as peace talks in Switzerland appeared to be in jeopardy on Wednesday.

The government attack north of Aleppo that began in recent days is its first major offensive there since Russian air strikes began on September 30.

Rebels described the assault as the most intense yet, with activists reporting that 45 civilians have been killed. One commander said that opposition-held areas of Syria’s largest city were at risk of being encircled entirely by the government and allied militia, appealing to foreign states that back the rebels to send more weapons.

Chances of achieving a ceasefire at talks in Geneva appears to be receding as the government, supported by Russian air power, advances against rebels, some of them US-backed.

The refugee crisis and spread of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group through large areas of Syria, and from there to Iraq, had injected a new urgency to resolve the five-year-old Syria war.

On Tuesday, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, called on Moscow to stop the bombing during the peace process. “We are beginning the talks, we are at the table and we expect a ceasefire,” he said after a meeting in Rome of countries opposed to ISIL.

But Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister,  said at a news conference from Oman on Wednesday that Russia would not stop its air strikes on Syria “until we defeat terrorist organisation like al-Nusra [Front]”.

The area around Aleppo safeguards a rebel supply route from Turkey into opposition-held parts of the city and stands between government-held parts of western Aleppo and the Shia villages of Nubul and al-Zahraa, which are loyal to Damascus.

“The supply routes were not cut but there is heavy bombardment of them by the jets,” said a commander in the Levant Front rebel group who gave his name as Abu Yasine. “The Russian jets are trying to hit headquarters and cut supply routes.”

The Russian jets had been working “night and day” for three days, he added, and reiterated the rebels’ long-held demand for anti-aircraft missiles to confront the assault.

“If there is no support, the regime could besiege the city of Aleppo and cut the road to the north,” said Abu Yasine, whose group is one of the rebel movements that have received military support from states opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, funnelled via Turkey.

Advancing government forces seized the village of Hardatnin some 10km northwest of Aleppo, building on gains of the previous day, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring body.

Another rebel commander said that he had sent reinforcements to the area.

“We sent new fighters this morning, we sent heavier equipment there. It seems it will be a decisive battle in the north, God willing,” said Ahmed al-Seoud, head of a Free Syrian Army group known as Division 13.

The Russian intervention has reversed the course of the war for Damascus, which suffered a series of major defeats to rebels in western Syria last year before Moscow deployed its air force as part of an alliance with Iran.