By RIA Novosti
Belgrade : Russian humanitarian aid worth around 40 million rubles ($1.7 million) will be delivered to Serbs in north Kosovo next week, a UN spokesman said on Friday.
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 have now been delivered to Belgrade in four deliveries.
Alexander Ivanko, a spokesman for the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said: “It is expected that all the necessary issues will be resolved in a few days, and the humanitarian aid will arrive in Kosovo next week.”
Russia sent its last delivery to the region on Thursday when the final Russian emergencies ministry plane landed at Belgrade airport. The shipment is due to be transferred to a local Red Cross department for shipment to Kosovo.
Ivanko added that the cargo will not be guarded by peacekeepers in Kosovo as “Humanitarian aid is not accompanied by patrols.”
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 37 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.