Syria Cease-Fire Collapse Highlights How Far US-Russia Relations Have Fallen

Civilians watch as a tractor clears the rubble following Syrian government forces airstrikes in the rebel held neighborhood of Tariq a-Bab in Aleppo on Sept. 24, 2016. Residents in Syria's battleground city of Aleppo cowered indoors as fierce airstrikes toppled buildings and killed at least 52 civilians, after diplomatic efforts to revive a ceasefire failed. Thaer Mohammed/AFP/Getty Images

KYIV, Ukraine—The story is depressingly familiar.

On Friday, the cease-fire in Syria, which was brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, collapsed as Russian and Syrian warplanes resumed their scorched earth airstrike campaign in Aleppo.

“Russia has no vested interest in stability in the Middle East,” Stephen Blank, senior fellow for Russia at the American Foreign Policy Council, told The Daily Signal.

“For Russia, security is only achievable if everyone else is insecure,” Blank said. “They’re not peacemakers, it’s a pretense. They want to force people to accept that Russia is important.”

The collapse of the cease-fire in Syria is the latest in a series of setbacks for U.S.-Russian relations.

The 5-year-old war in Syria has displaced half of the country's population and is estimated to have killed more than 400,000 people.