Russia Air Base Distributes Aid to Syria's Quake Victims
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Russian military at Syria's Khmeimim air base has begun providing humanitarian material to the people impacted by the recent deadly earthquakes.
The decision to open the base to the Syrian population was made at the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lt. Col. Alexander Vasiliev of the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria told Sputnik.
According to him, humanitarian supplies to Khmeimim from Russia will be delivered daily. At the same time, a first-aid post is operating at the Russian airbase, which receives victims of the earthquakes and provides them with all the necessary medical assistance.
Nearly 40,000 people are estimated to have perished in the series of powerful earthquakes and aftershocks that hit parts of Turkey and Syria on February 6. The death toll from the disaster in Syria currently stands at about 8,500, according to Rick Brennan, the acting regional emergency director for the Eastern Mediterranean office of the World Health Organization (WHO).
While NATO-member Turkey has been on the receiving end of an outpouring of aid from dozens of countries, assistance to Syria has been hampered by geopolitics.
