Russia on Saturday vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution submitted by France that proposed restoring a cessation of hostilities in Syria's Aleppo.

Moscow submitted a draft resolution of its own, which also urged for the end of violence in Aleppo but with an emphasis on continued fight against “extremists”, the term used by Russia and Syria in reference to all groups opposed to the Bashar al-Assad's regime.

U.K.'s UN envoy Matthew Rycroft called the Russian resolution "a shame".

"There can be no justification for aerial attacks that indiscriminately hit civilians, their homes and their hospitals," he told the Security Council.

Since Sept. 19, when the Bashar al-Assad regime announced the end of a weeklong truce sponsored by Washington and Moscow, Syrian and Russian warplanes have pounded opposition-held parts of Aleppo.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told the Council before the vote that opposing the resolution "would allow Assad to kill more people and be a senseless gift to the extremists".

The bombardment of Aleppo had "nothing to do with combating extremism", he added.

PHOTO CAPTION

Smoke rises from Bustan al-Basha neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, October 5, 2016. REUTERS

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