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Seventh plane with Russian military returns after anti-coronavirus mission in Italy

All servicemen will undergo compulsory sanitary and epidemiological measures

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. The seventh plane with servicemen and special equipment of the Russian Defense Ministry’s joint detachment has returned from Italy to Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow, the ministry’s press service said on Wednesday.

"The seventh Il-76 plane of the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces has arrived at Chkalovsky airfield with servicemen and special military equipment of a joint detachment of the Russian Defense Ministry, which had fulfilled the tasks on providing assistance in combating the coronavirus infection in the Italian Republic," the ministry said.

All servicemen will undergo compulsory sanitary and epidemiological measures, it said.

Earlier reports said on May 12 two planes from Italy were due to take 14 servicemen and three units of special military equipment to Russia.

From March 22 to May 7, specialists of Russia’s radiation, chemical and biological protection troops jointly with the Italian military personnel fully disinfected care homes for elderly people and other facilities in about 100 communities in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. Since April 6, when a field hospital was opened in Bergamo, Russia military medics provided treatment to 115 patients, with 76 of them having recovered and discharged by now.