this was back in 2015. and vladimir putin decided russia would become far more involved in the war. russian planes provided aerial support for the syrian government. and one focus was aleppo, the largest city in syria and a rebel stronghold. by 2016, this was eastern aleppo. with russian controlling the skies, the city below was devastated, as this rescue worker describes. translation: syrian and russian l warplanes carried out more than 150 air strikes on aleppo last night, causing so much destruction. they're bombing civilian neighbourhoods, hospitals are full of wounded and civil defences are overwhelmed. a un inquiry the next year concluded civilians were targeted by all sides and said that... that was syria. and it wasn't the first time we'd seen putin's willingness to destroy cities. in the south of russia is grozny.