LONDON/AMMAN — Russia vetoed a UN security resolution on Friday that would have extended the sole remaining route for cross-border aid to Syria by a year, putting millions of Syrians at further risk of famine and disease. The veto is likely to have been prompted in part by retaliatory spite over crushing US and EU sanctions on Russia, as Syria grapples with a prolonged killer drought and the world with dwindling grain supplies because of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The UN says that Syrians who lack access to sufficient food stand at a record 12.4 million.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been seeking to speak to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin for the past week in a bid to secure his approval to extend the mandate, which was set to expire on Sunday, well-placed sources speaking not for attribution told Al-Monitor.

Russia says it will only agree to a six-month extension subject to renewal with a commitment that from thereon all aid to Syria would be disbursed by the regime in Damascus. As Norwegian and Irish diplomats frantically worked on the wording of a compromise agreement, Washington’s UN envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned via Twitter that without the UN, 70% percent of Syria’s food needs would go unmet. “An entire generation is at risk.”