International pressure on Moscow to end the joint siege of Aleppo is growing as Russia faces a key United Nations vote over the siege of the Syrian city.
Moscow's UN ambassador says he will most likely veto a Security Council resolution that would ground Russian warplanes as Russia's parliament ratified a treaty with Syria that allows its troops to stay indefinitely in the country - a show of support for embattled President Bashar Assad.
The siege by Syrian forces backed by Russian warplanes has inflicted immense suffering on civilians in the city's rebel-held eastern districts.
A ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia collapsed last month and Washington-Moscow ties have deteriorated sharply.
Russian politicians said ratifying the treaty with Syria on Friday was a necessary step to stand up to the US, which backs Syrian rebels trying to oust Assad.
As Aleppo's misery dragged on, Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin rejected a French-proposed security council resolution that would call for grounding all aircraft, including Russia's, over Aleppo.
The resolution, also calling for an Aleppo ceasefire, is to be considered on Saturday but Mr Churkin said: "I cannot possibly see how we can let this resolution to pass."
In a last-minute move on Friday, Russia introduced its own draft resolution urging "immediate, safe and unhindered humanitarian access throughout Syria", similar language to the French text.
But Russia's draft adds two new elements, stressing "the urgent need to achieve and verify separating moderate forces from Jabhat Al-Nusra as a key priority" - a reference to the al-Qaida linked militant group.
It also welcomes UN envoy Staffan de Mistura's proposal for an al Qaida-linked militant faction to leave Aleppo in exchange for a halt to Russian and Syrian government bombardment and asks UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon to present a plan to the council to implement it.
The security council will vote first on the French draft and then on Russia's. What is likely to happen is a Russian veto of the French draft and a veto of the Russian draft by France and its Western allies.
Russia's air campaign in Syria, launched a year ago, has reversed the tide of war and helped Assad's forces regain some key ground. Moscow says the goal of its military operation is to assist the Syrian army in the fight against terrorism and rejects accusations of targeting civilians.
The Kremlin-controlled State Duma voted unanimously to approve the deal, which allows Russia to keep its forces at the Hemeimeem air base in Syria's coastal province of Latakia, Assad's Alawite heartland, for as long as it wants.
The deal was signed in August 2015 in Damascus, a month before the Russian air campaign began.
Russia also has a naval base in Syria's port of Tartus, the only such outpost outside the former Soviet Union. That base is not covered by the treaty, and some politicians say it could be the subject of a separate deal.
On Thursday, the Russian military warned the US against striking the Syrian army, stressing that Russian air defence weapons in Syria stand ready to fend off any attack.
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said any US strikes on areas controlled by Assad's government could jeopardise the lives of Russian servicemen and noted that the range of Russian S-300 and S-400 air defence missile systems would "surprise" any country operating aircraft over Syria.
During Friday's debates, Russian politicians said Moscow should demonstrate its military muscle to deter the US.
Meanwhile, Syrian rebels said they captured several Shiite pro-government fighters in Aleppo after repelling a government offensive on a southern neighbourhood of the contested city.
Social media postings showed rebels from the Fastiqum faction harshly interrogating three captives, who spoke with Iraqi accents. The Fastiqum and Nour el-Dine el-Zinki groups said the prisoners were
fighters from the Iraqi Nujaba Shiite militia, which has recently sent some 4,000 fighters to Syria to fight alongside government forces in Aleppo.
Syria's government depends on an array of foreign militias, elite Iranian fighters, as well as Russian military intelligence and air power to maintain its fight against the rebels, who also rely on foreign fighters.
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