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Third plane with Russian humanitarian aid lands in Serbia

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A third IL-76 cargo plane of the Russian Emergencies Ministry carrying 40 tons of humanitarian aid, mostly rice, to ethnic Serbs in Kosovo landed at a Belgrade airport on Tuesday.
BELGRADE, April 8 (RIA Novosti) - A third IL-76 cargo plane of the Russian Emergencies Ministry carrying 40 tons of humanitarian aid, mostly rice, to ethnic Serbs in Kosovo landed at a Belgrade airport on Tuesday.

A fourth and final shipment of aid including medicines and sugar is to arrive on April 10.

A total of 150 metric tons of food including canned meat and fish, baby food, rice, and sugar, along with substantial amounts of medical equipment, medicines, disinfectants and other healthcare products will be delivered to Belgrade. The supplies are worth around 40 million rubles ($1.7 million)

The aid will be transferred to a local Red Cross department for shipment to Kosovo after April 10, when the final delivery has been made.

Serbian Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic said earlier that Serbs urgently need humanitarian aid in Kosovo and Metohija. He estimated the number of families in need of the supplies at 8,300.

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to provide humanitarian aid to Serb areas in Kosovo last month after a request from Serbia's government.

Kosovo, with a 90% ethnic-Albanian majority, has been recognized as a sovereign state by 36 countries including the United States and most European Union members since it proclaimed its independence from Serbia on February 17. Russia and China continue to back Belgrade's position that Kosovo will always remain a part of Serbia.

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