
These harrowing pictures, released by the Russian Ministry of Defence, show the utter devastation left behind by troops in Aleppo.

The haunting images show tanks driving through streets littered with rubble and lined with crumbling buildings, and Russian soldiers making their mark by daubing graffiti on walls in besieged the Syrian city.

Some pictures show desperate Syrian women and barefoot children receiving handouts of food from Russian troops, while others show dogs picking through the wreckage of buildings.

Dozens of images show rows of weaponry lined up on the ground, or huge explosions shaking the earth of the dusty city.

Together the images offer paint a stark picture of what is left of the ancient metropolis - one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

A Russian soldier on the ground in Aleppo, which has suffered heavy bombardment from Putin's forces

Weapons lie on the dusty ground in Aleppo, the ancient city that has been partially reduced to rubble by Putin's troops

A soldier stands behind an Uran-6 remote operated mine vehicle, which separates him from the shell of what was once a building

Soldiers consult their equipment as they stand next to their vehicles on barren ground in Aleppo

In this haunting image a tank drives down a street strewn with rubble, and lined on either side by crumbling buildings

A bomb detection dog rests its head on a soldier's knee in Aleppo, where Russian troops have been heavily involved in fighting

A shell lies in the dusty earth in Aleppo where Russian troops have been battling Islamic State insurgents, resulting in heavy civilian losses

A member of Russian military preparing for a mine to be blown up, behind the thorny Syrian ground

Missiles daubed with Arabic writing are lined up on the ground by Russian troops, who have been backing Syrian government forces in their brutal assaults on rebel-held areas of Aleppo

Clouds of smoke and clumps of earth fly into the air as Uran- 6 drives over a buried landmine

A mine lies hidden in a thorny bush on the dusty Aleppo ground

A Russian soldier studies his equipment as an Uran-6 remote operated mine vehicle drives past him

A soldier writes 'no mines' in Russian on a wall in Aleppo with the area having been secured

Tanks full of Russian soldiers roll through the forecourt outside Aleppo International Airport, which has been heavily damaging during years of conflict in the city

A Russian soldier concentrates on his handheld computer as the buildings of Aleppo stand crumbling behind him and his military digger

A soldier lays a device on the ground in the city which thousands of civilians have already been forced to flee

A Russian soldier holds an explosive as he sits besides beside empty grenades and weaponheads

A soldier wipes the mouth of a small boy, as a group of childen - some barefoot - sit amidst the rubble of an Aleppo street

Empty explosives lie on the ground, lined up by Russian soldiers who shared this picture from the frontline

This picture, shared by the Russian Ministry of Defence, shows a huge explosion among the rubble

A Russian soldier passes a rocket to another as they stand behind a mound of rubble in war-torn Aleppo

A Russian soldier lines up weapons on the ground in Syria, which has endured almost six years of fighting

Homemade bombs created from fire extinguishers lie among those lined up by Russian soldiers on the ground in Aleppo

Russian soldiers pick through the rubble on this Aleppo street, which has been severely damaged in the bombardment, while the remains of a burnt-out car stand in the background

A Syrian woman and her children receive handouts of food and drink from Russian military personnel on the ground in Aleppo

A soldier studies his weaponry as he stands beside a flyover bridge, which was once busy with civilian traffic

A soldier scans the ground, searching for buried landmines hidden beneath the sparse grass and broken stones

A soldier holds a dog on a lead as they scan the ground next to crumbling buildings in the war-torn city

Russian soldiers pick their way through a barren field in Aleppo, which has borne the brunt of fighting in Syria

A soldier leads a military dog through the broken bricks, old tyres and rusted metal that litter the ground

Soldiers use a dog to help them pick through broken buildings in the heart of the ancient city

A rocket launcher stands amidst bricks from collapsed buildings in this picture shared by the Russian army

Russian soldiers sit atop a tank rolling through the empty streets of once bustling-Aleppo

A heavily armed Russian soldier works on the ground in the deserted streets of the Syrian city

A Russian soldier flies a drone on the empty streets of Aleppo, as tanks full of soldiers stand behind him

Russian troops handle heavy weaponry in front of a near-collapsed building on the streets of central Aleppo