Russian President Vladimir Putin said the United States’ missile strikes on a military airfield in Syria violates international law and represents an act of aggression against a sovereign state under a far-fetched pretext.

“President Putin regards the US attacks on Syria as an aggression against a sovereign state in violation of the norms of international law, and under a trumped-up pretext at that,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

“Putin also sees the attacks on Syria by the US as an attempt to divert the international community’s attention from the numerous casualties among civilians in Iraq,” said Peskov.

He added that “In Putin’s opinion, total disregard for the use of chemical weapons by terrorists only drastically aggravates the situation,” noting that this step by Washington may cause big harm to the Russian-U.S. relations.

Later, Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Russia has suspended its memorandum of understanding on air safety over Syria with the United States following the deadly US missile attack on the Shayrat airfield.

“Russia suspends the memorandum on the prevention of incidents and ensuring air safety during operations in Syria reached with the US,” the ministry said in a statement.

The Ministry also called on UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting to discuss US missile strikes on the Syrian airfield.

“We are calling for a UN Security Council emergency meeting to discuss the current situation,” the ministry said.

The Ministry said the US attack in Syria is nothing else than a show of force, stressing that the decision to attack Syria was made ahead of Idleb chemical incident.

“It is clear that the decision to conduct the strike [in Syria] was made in Washington before the incident in Idleb, which was used as a pretext for this demonstration of strength,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said

Source: SANA