MOSCOW, November 29. /TASS/. Western countries are urging to impose sanctions against Russia after 80,000 civilians were liberated in Syria’s Aleppo, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Major-General Igor Konashenkov, said on Tuesday.

He recalled that, over the past 24 hours, the Syrian army had been able to liberate from militants almost half of eastern Aleppo where 80,000 civilians reside.

"Now it turned out that the release of over 80,000 Aleppo residents held hostage by gunmen was not part of the plans of the UK and French Foreign Ministries, the US Department of State and the German Bundestag. They even urged to impose new sanctions for that," the spokesman said.

According to Konashenkov, there are tens of thousands of children in the liberated areas. "Many of them were provided, for the first time in a long while, with food, drinking water and medical assistance in the humanitarian centers deployed by Russia. Over the past few years, these Syrians have been used as human shield by terrorists of every stripe and color in Aleppo. It was they who were allegedly protected by all Western politicians," he said.