Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has confirmed that the country’s
“humanitarian” flights to Syria carry military equipment as well as
humanitarian aid – after the US and NATO warned Moscow over its
involvement in the Syrian conflict.
“Russian planes are sending to Syria
both military equipment in accordance with current contracts and
humanitarian aid,” Lavrov told reporters on Thursday.
Russia’s Kommersant daily newspaper said
earlier on Thursday that Moscow’s advanced BTR-82A armoured personnel
carriers were among arms supplied to Damascus.
Moscow has previously insisted in public that its flights to Syria were only for humanitarian purposes.
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Al
Jazeera’s Peter Sharp, reporting from Moscow, said that nothing has
changed and the Russians have been supplying the Syrian government for
years now.
“Going back 60 years, Russia has been supplying Syria with arms, advisors, military equipment. Nothing much has really changed.
“Between 2009 and 2011 Russia was
supplying 71 percent of Syria’s miltiary needs – everything from jets to
military equipment to air defense systems.
“Russian foreign minister says this
continues to take place but he did make a distinction: there has been
additional air traffic coming into Latakia’s airbase and he says
miltiary equipment and humanitarian aid are being delivered,” Sharp
said.
“As far as boosting up boots on the
ground, he said Russian military specialists are working on training
Syrians on using Russian weapons and no additional steps have been
taken.”
The Kremlin declined to comment on
Thursday on whether Russian troops were fighting in Syria, after sources
in Lebanon told the Reuters news agency that Russian forces had begun
participating in military operations there.
Title : Russia confirms weapons on flights to Syria
Description : Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has confirmed that the country’s “humanitarian” flights to Syria carry military equipment as wel...
