syria destruction
© Mikhail Alaeddin / Sputnik
The Russian and US-brokered nationwide ceasefire in Syria is due to come into effect at 16:00 GMT, the Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed. It added that Russia will continue airstrikes targeting terrorists.

The Russian Defense Ministry says that airstrikes against terrorist groups such as Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and Al-Nusra Front will go ahead, since they are not part of the brokered agreement.

Moscow also says that the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria has established special monitoring groups in all Syrian provinces to observe the cessation of hostilities.

According to Moscow, a joint US-Russian Coordination Center will be established to decide on airstrikes conducted by US-led coalition planes and the Russian Air Force.

The creation of the center was earlier announced by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart John Kerry in Geneva last Friday.

The start time of the truce was confirmed by Lieutenant General Sergey Rudskoy, chief of the main operations department of the Russian General Staff.

"In accordance with these agreements, the cessation of hostilities on the entire territory of the Syria Arab Republic resumes today, starting at 7pm Moscow time. The Russian side has completed all the necessary preparations for its [ceasefire] compliance," Rudskoy said.

Rudskoy said Russia has "all the necessary capabilities" for monitoring the ceasefire situation in Syria. He added that the respective information on the state of the agreement would be provided to reporters for "objective coverage of the real situation."

He also said that contact between the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria and the US monitoring group in Amman, Jordan, should be reinstated.

The Defense Ministry has urged one of the key opposition groups, the Free Syrian Army, to stop military action against Kurdish units in order to aid the ceasefire. The Kurdish forces are seen as one of the most effective powers on the ground fighting terrorists.

With airstrikes against the terrorists set to continue, Russia has still not received information from the US on the exact locations of Al-Nusra Front militants, said the chief of the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria, Lieutenant General Vladimir Savchenko.

"I want to stress that the fact that the US has still not provided information allowing the identification of the exact operational places of Jebhat al-Nusra in the combat areas is hampering the fruitful joint work on the cessation of hostilities."