The Russian Defence ministry has denied that one of its air raids hit Aleppo's Qaterji, the Daily Mail reports.
"The Russian planes operating in Syria never work on targets that are inside settled areas," the Russian Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
Konashenkov said Qaterji was particularly out of bounds for Russian strikes because it adjoins two of the humanitarian corridors Moscow has opened for residents to flee.
He branded Western media reports on the 5-years-old Syrian boy as a "cynical exploitation" of the tragic situation in eastern Aleppo and "cliched anti-Russian propaganda".
He suggested the attack could have been carried out by rebels in Aleppo using homemade rockets to target roads close to the humanitarian corridors to undermine Russia's efforts.
He also suggested however that the area where the boy was may not have been bombed at all, citing footage of unbroken windows.
"If a strike really did take place," he said, it was not an aerial strike but either a gas cylinder "used in large quantities there by terrorists" or a mortar shell.
