MOSCOW, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday it considers it “senseless” for Syrian government forces to respect a ceasefire unilaterally when it is being attacked by militants who cannot be reined in by the United States.

“Syrian servicemen and peaceful citizens are still dying. The cause of this is the fact the United States has no effective leverage to influence Syria’s opposition and is unaware of the real situation on the ground,” Lieutenant-General Sergei Rudskoi, a senior Russian Defence Ministry official, told a briefing.

“Taking into account the fact that the terms of the ceasefire are not respected by militants, we consider observing it unilaterally by Syrian government forces is senseless.”

The ministry said its monitors on the ground had registered 53 ceasefire violations in Syria over the past 24 hours. There is information that moderate Syrian opposition units are merging with “terrorist groups” and preparing joint attacks, the ministry said. (Reporting by Polina Devitt; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Christian Lowe)