LUXEMBOURG: The European Union accused Russia on Monday of putting peace efforts at risk in Syria, calling on Moscow to stop bombing Western-backed rebels but failing to agree on a role for President Bashar Assad in resolving the crisis.
Seeking a common front in their criticism of Russia's dramatic military intervention, EU foreign ministers warned that air strikes designed to support Assad could also deepen the 4-1/2-year civil war that has killed 250,000 people.
"The recent Russian military attacks ... are of deep concern and must cease immediately," ministers said in their most strongly-worded statement on Russia's intervention.
"The military escalation risks prolonging the conflict, undermining a political process, aggravating the humanitarian situation and increasing radicalization," said the ministers, who are meeting in Luxembourg.
EU leaders are also expected to criticize Russia at a summit in Brussels on Thursday, EU officials say.
After years of inaction in Syria, the 28-nation EU is now desperate to stem the flow of migrants. Its stark criticism of Moscow underscores just how far diplomatic efforts have faltered since a U.N. meeting in New York in late September, where Europe and the United States looked to Russia for help.
Russian incursions into Turkish airspace and air strikes directed not at ISIS militants but at moderate opposition groups have alienated the West, while leaving EU and U.N diplomacy in disarray, diplomats said.
Plans have evaporated for a 'contact group' working with Russia, the United States, Iran and Saudi Arabia to find a post-conflict settlement, while EU diplomats have few ideas about how to find a political solution.