McCain slams Russia: 'Mr. Putin is not interested in being our partner'

One day after he spoke Russian Prime Minister for a renewed "cold war" in the country with the West, the US senior senator accused Moscow therapist in Syria "as an exercise in live-fire" for the army as he tried to carve out a sphere influence in the Middle East.

In Sunday's speech to the Munich Security Conference in Germany, US Senator John McCain critical intervention of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Syria almost five years of civil war.

"Mr. Putin is not interested in being our partner," said McCain, President of the Commission of the US Senate armed services, adding that the Russian president wanted to "close the Assad regime."

World powers agree to pause fighting in Syria 

From September to intervene in the conflict in Syria, Russia has pursued a campaign of air from an air base in the province Hmeymim Latakia in Syria, which has helped swing momentum for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

McCain continued, "wants to restore Russia as a major power in the Middle East. That wants to use Syria as a live-fire exercise to modernize Russia's military, wants to turn the Latakia province in a military outpost from which to toughen and enforce a Russian sphere of influence - a new Kaliningrad or Krimaia- -and wants to worsen the refugee crisis and use it as a weapon to divide the Alliance and to undermine the European project. "

Russia annexed the Crimea, where he will have a critical hot water naval base in Sevastopol from Ukraine in 2014, and gained possession of the port of Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea, from Germany at the end of the second World War.

Syrian opposition: 58 massacres of Syrian civilians from Russia

The comments came amid increased criticism of Russia's actions in Syria, in the wake of the cease-fire agreed to by world powers Friday, the details of which are still being worked out.

Diplomats agree to 'cessation of hostilities' in Syria

West of Syrian forces and opposition groups say Russia is bombing civilians and undermines prospects for peace - accusations that Russia denies.

Riad Hijab, the former Syrian prime minister and head of the main Syrian opposition group, the High Commission negotiations, said in Munich Sunday that there had been "58 clear massacres committed by the Russian military against civilians Syrian forces only in the last 10 days."

Repeated later: "the action I see is that Russia is killing Syrian civilians."

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday in Munich that Russia strikes in Syria was largely "against legitimate opposition groups."

And McCain continued his criticism Sunday, saying that the recent agreement on the cessation of hostilities would require "opposition groups to stop fighting ... but allows Russia to continue bombing terrorists who insists everyone, including civilians. "

"Russia has bombed civilians indiscriminately and moderate opposition groups for months with impunity," he said.

Obama, Putin speak

Amid the rising tensions, the Kremlin revealed that Putin and US President Barack Obama had spoken on the phone to Syria Sunday.

The conversation was "sincere and constructive," said the statement from the Kremlin, adding it was Obama's initiative.

Both sides gave a positive assessment of the set call hostilities and agreed to intensify cooperation through diplomatic channels and other bodies in order to implement.

Putin also reiterated the need for "common anti-terrorist front", with close contacts between the US and Russian defense officials "making it possible for combat ISIDOS and other terrorist organizations in the most effective and best planned fashion."

Syria in the Security Council writes over Turkish bombardment

The phone call came a day after US Vice President Joe Biden spoke to Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, calling on Ankara to show restraint by stopping artillery strikes on Kurdish forces in northern Syria.

Syrian refugees are stranded as Russian airstrikes advance

Turkish forces shelled Kurdish units in the city of Zaz in northern Aleppo Bekaa Saturday and Sunday, killing two militants from the US-backed democratic force Syria and wounding seven others, according to the London-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human rights.

The Syrian government condemned Turkey's actions on Sunday and sent letters to the UN Security Council called upon to intervene, according to the Syrian news agency SANA state.

The White House said in a statement Sunday that Davutoglu had stated Biden US efforts to discourage Syrian Kurdish forces take advantage of current circumstances additional fitting close to the Turkish border, and urged Turkey to show mutual restraint.

The State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Saturday that Turkey and the Kurdish forces shared serious threat from ISIS just to the east of Azaz.

"We continue to encourage all parties to focus on this common threat, which has not fallen, and to work for a cease of hostilities, as agreed in Munich," he said.