Russia sends fighter jets to Armenia base near Turkey
The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that Moscow has deployed several fighter jets and a transport helicopter to Russia’s airbase in Armenia near the border with Turkey.
Four fourth-generation Mikoyan MiG-29 aircraft and a number of modernized MiG-29S bombers and a Mil Mi-8MT helicopter have been sent to the base.
Located at Erebuni airport outside the capital, Yerevan, the Russian base already has nine fourth-generation MiG-29 planes capable of carrying a payload of up to 4,000 kilograms of weapons. The aircraft also have larger fuel tanks.
The Armenian capital is located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Armenia's border with Turkey.
The announcement came a day after a Russian draft resolution that called for an immediate end to Turkey's shelling and military actions against Syria was turned down at the United Nations Security Council.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday that Russia expresses “regret that this draft resolution was rejected,” and that Moscow considers the cross-border shelling carried out by Turkey as “unacceptable.”
According to a Kremlin statement, President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Friday held a "detailed discussion of the situation in Syria particularly due to the escalation in tensions on the Syrian-Turkish border" with his security council.
The Kremlin spokesman also underlined that Russia would go on assisting Syrian armed forces “in their offensive actions against terrorists, against terrorist organizations.”
The Russian involvement aims to provide “stability in the fight with terrorism, to preserve the territorial integrity of the country (Syria) and the region,” Peskov stated.
Since late September 2015, Russia has been conducting airstrikes against foreign-backed militants in Syria upon a request by the Damascus government.
Turkey, however, is among the main supporters of militants fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Ankara has also been accused on numerous occasions of being involved in illegal oil trade with the Takfiri Daesh terrorists.
Ankara has also been shelling positions of Kurdish fighters in northern Syria over the past days in an attempt to stop them from reaching the Turkish border.
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