Hollande says told Russian Federation to strike ‘only’ at Islamic State

Buratino rockets kill indiscriminately by covering wide areas in flames.

Lavrov insisted Russian Federation was targeting the same militant groups as the U.S.-led coalition, which is conducting its own airstrikes in Syria: the Islamic State, also known as ISIL, the al-Qaida-linked Jabbat al-Nusra and other groups.

“I remarked to President Putin that where we’ve identified [Russian] strikes, only one was against Raqqa”, Mr. Hollande said, referring to Islamic State’s stronghold in northern Syria.

PARIS French President Francois Hollande and Russia’s Vladimir Putin had an in-depth discussion on Syria on Friday in which they “tried to narrow down differences on political transition”, an aide to Hollande said after the two met in Paris. “On that basis we have to hold everyone to their responsibilities”, Hollande told reporters after the talks on Syria that lasted more than an hour.

The ministry said all of the targets belonged to the Islamic State group, although Russian officials have acknowledged that other unidentified groups have previously been targeted as well.

He and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the leaders had decided that a new electoral law would be passed in Ukraine, and that only 90 days after that could the polls be held.

Following military pullback from front lines, Putin promises to ask pro-Russian rebels to cancel elections, Poroshenko says.

In this Thursday, October 1, 2015, image taken from video provided by the Syrian activist-based media group Qasioun News, which has-been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, people gather near damaged buildings, in the aftermath of a Russian airstrike, in Dair al-Asafeer village, rural Damascus, Syria.

The peace process “must be completed by the end of the year“.

Tkachuk said the withdrawal seemed to be arranged by using reproduction of a given Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and is done during the next 14 days.

It said on Monday its people “spotted … one heavy multiple launch thermobaric rocket system (TOS-1 Buratino, 220mm)” in Kruhlyk, in a Russia-occupied part of the Luhansk region.

Violence in Ukraine’s separatist eastern territories has ebbed in recent weeks to its lowest point since the ceasefire was signed in February, but Western diplomats say the 12-point Minsk peace plan is far from fully implemented.

Obama said he approved supplying counter-battery systems to the debt-troubled Ukraine, Poroshenko said, according to a transcript of the broadcast on his Web page.

The warring sides this week agreed to withdraw weapons of less than a 100-millimetre calibre from a buffer zone between their forces, which Hollande said would begin on Saturday. The four leaders agreed that negotiations would continue, including a meeting of the countries’ foreign ministers in November and nearly daily contacts between the leaders’ aides, the spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said.

Ukraine and the West accuse Russian Federation of covertly supporting the rebels with troops and weapons, a claim Moscow denies.