KUBINKA (Moscow Region), December 21. /TASS/. Russia will grant Turkey a loan to partially finance Ankara’s purchase of S-400 air defense missile systems, with deliveries expected to begin in late 2019 - early 2020, Russian presidential aide for military and technical cooperation Vladimir Kozhin said on Thursday.

"All the issues have been resolved and I discussed this theme while literally entering this hall. The contract is entering the implementation stage actually in coming days. A part of the contract will be paid for by the Turkish side and the other part will be covered by a loan granted by the Russian side," the presidential aide said.

"The deliveries will begin in late 2019 - early 2020," he added.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in September that Ankara had inked a deal with Moscow on the purchase of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems and had made an advance payment.

Chief Executive of Russia’s state hi-tech corporation Rostec Sergei Chemezov told TASS on November 2 that the deal for the delivery of S-400 air defense missile systems to Turkey was worth over $2 billion.

Russia’s S-400 Triumf is the latest long-range antiaircraft missile system that went into service in 2007. It is designed to destroy aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, including medium-range missiles, and can also be used against ground objectives.

The S-400 can engage targets at a distance of 400 km and at an altitude of up to 30 km.

Russian Aerospace Force Deputy Commander-in-Chief Viktor Gumyonny said in April that missiles capable of destroying targets in outer space had started arriving for the S-400 systems.