A 'Ruslan' An-124 Condor transport aircraft landed at Beirut's international airport, with 17 personnel, 80 metric tons of equipment and nine vehicles on board to embark on a three-month effort to restore roads, build temporary bridges, and clear areas under reconstruction of mines.
"Russian Air Force transport planes will make six flights to Lebanon in three days, starting October 3," Air Force Commander Vladimir Mikhailov said. "A total of 130 tons of equipment and 300 servicemen from a combat engineer battalion will be delivered."
A Russian ship, the Yury Arshenevsky, which left the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk October 1 and is scheduled to arrive at El-Jiya, a port in southern Lebanon, October 4 or 5, will also bring combat engineers and equipment to put up six bridges.
The battalion will work in Lebanon from October 11 to December 11.
Vladimir Isakov, deputy defense minister in charge of logistics, has said Russia will spend some 500 million rubles ($18.6 million) on the reconstruction effort in the country and will bring its heavy equipment back.
Russian servicemen will not work under the aegis of the United Nations, which is presiding over humanitarian efforts and is to deploy 15,000 peacekeepers in southern Lebanon to ensure order after fighting between Hizbollah and Israel.
The conflict killed over 1,000 Lebanese, forced nearly a quarter of the country's population to flee, and demolished some 100 bridges and 60 highways in Lebanon.
Lebanon has estimated the damage caused by Israeli air attacks and ground operations at over $3.6 billion. The UN said the armed conflict threw the country's economic development back 15 years.
