Brussels, 11/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 11 February, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, gave a justification of Russian action around Aleppo in support of the Syrian regime. “We are not about being apologetic for what we are doing. We are acting in a very transparent manner”, he said at a press conference. “We are present there legally at the invitation of the Syrian government, in contrast to what the so-called 'US-led coalition' is doing in Syria, where they are acting outside of international law and incidentally never telling anybody what exactly they are doing in Syria or Iraq - what their targets are, what the results of their campaign are”, he added. He also rounded upon the West, including Europeans, who have criticised the Russian air strikes (see EUROPE 11487). “Our western colleagues (…) used to say that some balance on the ground must be restored, so if there is some change in balance on the ground then that should be taken as a logical development in any armed conflict”, he said. Russia was also due to present proposals for a ceasefire, at the Munich conference during the evening of 11 February. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)