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MOSCOW, July 1./ITAR – The deliveries of Russian aircraft to Iraq are carried out within the framework of previously concluded contracts, they are planned to be completed by the end of the summer. Russian Ambassador to Iraq Ilya Mogunov informed ITAR-TASS.
“In total, as far as I remember, it is planned to deliver five to ten aircraft. The deliveries will be completed by the end of the summer, if not earlier,” the diplomat said. “The contracts were signed in 2013 and are now being implemented. There are not only aircraft, but also other equipment that will be supplied as it is produced,” he added. According to Morgunov, the term for fulfilling contracts for other types of equipment is five to six years.
The planes will prepare Russian aircraft for takeoffs
A high-ranking source in the Russian Defense Ministry told reporters that a contingent of Russian aircraft technicians is in Iraq to help prepare the Su-25 planes delivered under the signed contracts for takeoffs.
“There are no pilots there, only equipment that helps the Iraqis prepare aircraft for flights,” he said, without specifying the number of Russian personnel in Iraq and the timing of their stay.
Urgent delivery under previous contracts < p>Earlier it was reported that Russia carried out the supply of weapons to Iraq under previously signed contracts. Last week, the Iraqi Defense Ministry announced the arrival of a batch of Sukhoi attack aircraft from Russia. It was also reported that Iraq asked Russia in connection with the aggravation of the situation in the country to urgently supply Su-25 attack aircraft due to Washington's delay in deliveries of the promised F-16 fighters.
Su-25s were delivered to Iraq aboard the An-124-100 of the Russian Air Force in a disassembled state. The Iraqi department published a video on its website, which captured footage of the unloading of attack aircraft. One of the officers of the Iraqi Air Force said that the vehicles will be commissioned “in the next three to four days to provide support in the battle with ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant)”.
Spokesman for the US Department of State Jen Psaki stressed that she does not see a problem in the fact that Russia has supplied a batch of Su-25 aircraft to Iraq. She recalled that “Iraq acquired military equipment from a number of countries, including Russia, the Czech Republic, South Korea, to meet its security needs.”
The situation in Iraq escalated sharply in early June, when Sunni militants from the terrorist group ISIS, closely associated with al-Qaeda, and local radical groups loyal to them launched an offensive in the north of the country and captured a number of settlements.
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