Russian warplanes have intensified their attacks on northwestern Syria's last opposition bastion Idlib over the past week, conducting more than 20 airstrikes in the region.

There has been a lot of activity in Idlib, known as the dead end of the civil war that has been going on for nearly a decade in Syria.

Russian warplanes carried out air attacks with three aerial bombs on the Bara region in the south of Idlib, four aerial bombs on the Ankavi region, four aerial bombs on the Ruvayhah region, eight aerial bombs on the lower Barza region, and two aerial bombs on the Mashhad region in the north of Idlib.

Local sources in the region stated that the targets of the warplanes were again innocent civilians and that the people of the region were living in fear. No information was given about the loss of life and property in the intense air raids that lasted for a week.

According to the opposition aircraft observatory, the attack was carried out by Russian Su-34 type warplanes, and 373 airstrikes have been carried out since March 5, 2020.

While the United Nations calls for "attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure to stop," infrastructure and economic facilities have been damaged as a result of the bombings.

Turkey has been taking measures against the possibility of encountering a new wave of migration from Idlib, which has a border of approximately 130 kilometers (81 miles) with Turkey.

Briquette houses are being built in the countryside of Idlib to accommodate the population fleeing from Idlib. The cease-fire observation points, which have been established on the borders of the "Idlib de-escalation zone" since October 2017, are still operating.

The U.N. special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen said Tuesday that "Syria is a hot conflict, not a frozen one."

He said airstrikes have increased in the northwest, intensified clashes around Afrin and the northeast, and continued exchanges of rocket fire and shelling across all front lines as well as the use of improvised explosive devices and car bombs along with other security incidents.

"The current strategic stalemate on the ground and Syria’s absence from the headlines should not mislead anyone into thinking that the conflict needs less attention or fewer resources, or that a political settlement is not urgent," he said.

"Indeed, a conflict of this scale requires a comprehensive solution" in line with the 2012 road map.

While the war in Ukraine is quickly catching up, Pedersen said "Syria remains the biggest displacement crisis in the world" with 6.8 million refugees and 6.2 million people displaced in the country – "half the pre-war population."

Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya also warned that as the world turns to other conflicts "Syria is on the verge of becoming yet another forgotten crisis."

"Yet millions of Syrians struggle each month to survive, to feed their families and to provide a future for their children," she said. "For many, their situation has never been more dire since violence erupted in 2011."

Msuya said "a staggering 4.1 million people" in opposition-held northwest Syria need humanitarian aid, with almost a million people, mainly women and children, living in tents, "half of which are beyond their normal lifespan."

In early July 2020, China and Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have maintained two border crossing points from Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Syria’s northwest Idlib. Days later, the council authorized the delivery of aid through just one of those crossings, Bab al-Hawa. That one-year mandate was extended for a year on July 9, 2021.

Msuya told the council that last year the U.N. sent some 800 trucks of cross-border aid to the northwest each month, "consistently reaching 2.4 million people."

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has said aid should be controlled by the Syrian regime, its ally, and delivered across conflict lines.

Msuya said three cross-line convoys have been sent to the northwest but they cannot substitute for cross-border aid deliveries at this point.

Nebenzia called this "mere unwillingness to solve the problem of humanitarian deliveries from Damascus to Idlib."

"Let me be frank, in such circumstances, we can hardly see any reason why the cross-border resolution should be renewed again," he said.