U.S. plane delivers medical equipment to Moscow - source
VNUKOVO AIRPORT, Moscow. May 21 (Interfax) - A United States Air Force aircraft has landed at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport with a shipment of medical equipment for treating Covid-19 patients on board, an informed source told Interfax.
"The plane has arrived from a base in Germany and landed at Vnukovo at about 4:55 p.m. Moscow Time," the source said.
The plane is delivering medical ventilators, among other items to treat patients infected with the new coronavirus.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova had said earlier on Thursday that Russia and the U.S. fully paid for their own deliveries of medical items and equipment and have provided each other with assistance for free.
The Russian delivery in April, just as the U.S. one arriving today, was "effected on a gratuitous basis," she said.
Both sides "fully paid for their own shipments," Zakharova said.
Fifty ventilators are arriving from the U.S. on Thursday, and one more batch is expected next week; they will be sent to the Pirogov Center, she said.
"Specialists will make decisions on the further distribution of the American equipment among Russian medical facilities, taking into account the sanitary-epidemiological situation and depending on where there's real need for them," Zakharova said.
It had been reported earlier that the U.S. planned to give Russia a total of 200 ventilators.