Russia to complete withdrawal of military specialists from Italy on Friday - Russian Defense Ministry
MOSCOW. May 15 (Interfax) - Russian military specialists are now leaving Italy after helping it fight the spread of Covid-19, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.
"An [Ilyushin] Il-76 military transport plane of the Russian Aerospace Forces carrying servicemen and special-purpose hardware from the Russian Defense Ministry's combined unit which has been helping counter the spread of the coronavirus infection in the Italian Republic has taken off from the Villafranca airfield (Verona, Italy) and is now en route to the Russian Federation," the Defense Ministry said.
"This flight will complete the transport of Russian specialists and special-purpose hardware to the territory of the Russian Federation," the ministry said.
The last 13 Russian military specialists and one piece of special-purpose hardware left Italy on board the Il-76 plane on Friday, it said.
Russian Consul General in Milan Alexander Nurizade saw the Russian servicemen off at the airfield.
Russian Defense Ministry specialists together with Italian servicemen carried out full disinfections of care homes for the elderly in around 100 localities in the Lombardy region and the Brescia province of Italy between March 22 and May 7, 2020. They disinfected 120 buildings and other constructions, more than 1.2 million square meters of indoor premises, and more than 500,000 square kilometers of hard-surface roads.
Russian military doctors admitted 115 Covid-19 patients for treatment after opening a field hospital in the city of Bergamo on April 6. A total of 76 patients have been discharged from the hospital upon recovery. Eight brigades of 32 doctors and nurses were working in the field hospital, admitting and treating patients in intensive care units and in units for patients with mild or moderate coronavirus symptoms. The teams worked round-the-clock in three shifts.