Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone with the leaders of Turkey and Iraq about battle for Mosul, where Iraqi forces are fighting to oust the Islamic State group, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
Putin "wished the Iraqi army and its allies complete success in their objectives," the Kremlin said in a statement on his conversations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
He also informed the Iraqi leader about the "measures taken by Russia to defuse the situation" in the Syrian city of Aleppo.
Moscow announced yesterday that Russian and Syrian air forces had stopped bombing Aleppo ahead of an eight-hour "humanitarian pause" in the battered city on Thursday.