Russian, Ukrainian leaders hold talks in Paris

It said there were 14 new missions on Friday, including targets in Idlib and Hama provinces.

Russia’s air strikes in Syria will lead to a further escalation of the conflict, members of the US-led coalition against Islamic State (IS) jihadists warned Friday, calling on Moscow to immediately stop targeting Syrian opposition forces.

“I am counting on the fact that the Minsk accords will be carried out, which unfortunately today is not the case”, Putin said in Moscow Thursday, speaking about the peace deal struck in February.

The French leader said that it would take time to organize elections in Ukraine which would meet global standards; also as a result, the implementation of the Minsk protocol was likely not to conclude by the end of the year. “When we look at the provisions of Minsk, nothing has been respected 100%”, she said.

Russian Federation says Assad’s government should be the centerpiece of global efforts to fight militants.

The USA has accused Russian Federation of “indiscriminate” bombing against the Syrian opposition.

“It’s only strengthening ISIL, and that’s not good for anybody”, Obama said.

France opposes Russia’s support of Assad, whom Hollande accuses of instigating the chaos in Syria, where up to 250,000 people are believed to have been killed in four years of bloodshed. “And they will be there for a while if they don’t take a different course”.

Moscow said on Friday its latest strikes had hit 12 Islamic State targets, but most of the areas it described were in western and northern parts of the country, while Islamic State is mostly present in the east.

While Europe has been eager to enlist Mr. Putin to bring stability to Syria by easing Mr. Assad out of power, Mr. Hollande and Ms. Merkel weren’t inclined to use the Ukraine negotiations as leverage to encourage Mr. Putin to play a more constructive role in Syria.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that Russian Federation is going after IS militants as well as a “list” of other groups.

The fighting in eastern Ukraine has dwindled significantly in recent weeks, but tensions remain over the final status of the rebel regions. “Airstrikes are useless unless they are conducted in cooperation with the Syrian army, the only force in Syria that is combating terrorism”.

Fighting has all but stopped in separatist eastern Ukraine but with peace closer than ever, the 17-month conflict risks being overshadowed by Russia’s dramatic intervention in the Syrian war.

FLINTOFF: Lipman, a Moscow-based expert who’s affiliated with George Washington University, says the Kremlin is determined to control its messages to both the Russian public world opinion.

The allies expressed concern that Russia’s military intervention in Syria would “only fuel more extremism and radicalization”.

Since the airstrikes began Wednesday, Russian jets have primarily bombed central and northwestern Syria, regions that are the gateway to government strongholds in Damascus and the coast.

However, given rapidly shifting battlefield terrain in Syria’s chaotic civil war, it can be hard to distinguish which groups hold what territory.

A spokesman for Mr. Putin noted “positive progress” at the talks, according to Interfax news agency.