After providing coronavirus aid to Italy and the US, Russia is sending its military medics to Serbia. The virologists and equipment are already at the airfield, prepared to depart for the Balkans.
Eight teams of doctors and nurses with state-of-the-art equipment as well as a unit of nuclear, biological and chemical protection (NBC) troops to carry out disinfection have been assigned by the Defense Ministry for the mission.
The massive Il-76 cargo planes are expected to take off from Chkalovsky airfield outside Moscow and arrive in Serbia later on Friday. Besides the 87 servicemen, they’ll be carrying 16 military vehicles and a batch of individual protective gear.
It takes less than three hours to get from the Russian capital to Belgrade by air, with the planes expected to make 11 flights to deliver all the intended cargo.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had asked his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for aid in tackling Covid-19 in late March, with his request now being fulfilled.
Serbia has so far registered 1,171 coronavirus cases, with 31 fatalities, and the country’s authorities are trying hard to prevent the epidemic from growing further and taking more lives.
Moscow earlier deployed eight medical brigades to Italy, who are now fighting the disease in the city of Bergamo, the epicenter of the outbreak in the country. A few days ago, a Russian military plane with essential supplies needed to tackle the coronavirus landed in the US where more than 6,000 have died so far after Donald Trump accepted the offer of assistance from Putin.
