Western governments and Russia have clashed at the UN Security Council even while the Syrian government presses ahead with its military offensive against rebel-held areas of Aleppo.
The UN Security Council voted on Saturday on two rival resolutions on the fighting, one drafted by France calling for an end to air strikes and a second by Russia that urged a ceasefire but made no mention of halting the bombings.
Russia vetoed the French-drafted resolution that would have demanded an immediate end to air strikes and military flights over Syria's second largest city and for a truce along with humanitarian aid access throughout the country.
It is the fifth time Russia has vetoed a UN resolution on Syria during the more than five-year conflict.
After Russia's veto, the council moved to the second vote on the Russian-drafted text, but it failed to gather enough votes to pass.
"It was a day of high drama at the Security Council," said James Bays, Al Jazeera's diplomatic editor, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York.
"The Russian ambassador called it a 'spectacle'. I was talking to him just moments ago as he was leaving. he said no one wins and we need to go back to diplomacy.
"But certainly some ambassadors were pointing the finger at Russia because, of course, the first resolution that was proposed by France, which suggested that all military aircraft over Aleppo should be grounde,d would have gone through if it wasn't for the Russian veto."
After Russia's proposal failed to gather enough votes, Matthew Rycroft, Britain's ambassador to the UN, asked Russia to "Stop bombing Aleppo now".
"It [the Russian proposal] failed because it failed to demand an immediate end to the aerial bombardment of Aleppo," he said.
"It's a sham. Just as Russia's hollow commitment to a political process in Syria is a sham. The indiscrimiunate bombing of civilians in Aleppo is sickening and barbaric. Please stop now."
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