BENAULIM, October 16. /TASS/. The actions of the US and France in Iraq’s Mosul should be very careful to minimize the death toll among the civilian population, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"We hope that our American partners and, in this case, French partners will act selectively and will do everything to minimize and better to have no victims among the civilians," Putin said.
"Of course, we are not planning to fan hysteria about this as our partners in the West do because we understand that there is the need to fight against terrorism and there is no other way than an active fight," he added.
The president agreed that there are parallels between Mosul and the actions of Russia in Aleppo where Russia’s troops try to prevent a humanitarian crisis and are criticized by the West for that. "The parallel is obvious," he said.
"Of course, now we can point to our partners to Mosul and say that many civilians live there, hundreds of thousands of people, and using airpower and artillery is very dangerous in regard to possible victims," Putin added.