Russia has dispatched a cargo plane with masks and medical equipment to the US after Donald Trump accepted an offer of humanitarian aid from Vladmir P
Russia has dispatched a cargo plane with masks and medical equipment to the US after Donald Trump accepted an offer of humanitarian aid from Vladmir Putin to fight the coronavirus outbreak. The plane, a Russian Antonov An-124-100 military transport, left from Chkalovsky airfield outside Moscow on Tuesday night.
The delivery is likely to stir controversy among critics of Trump, who have said Putin will portray the goodwill gesture as a public relations coup and use it to bolster Russia’s efforts to escape sanctions for meddling in the 2016 US elections.
Masks and other medical equipment are also in short supply in Russia where the number of infected with coronavirus rose by 440 on Wednesday to a confirmed 2,777 cases.
The US has more than 188,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 3,900 deaths attributed to the disease. Government scientists have said working models show tens, or even hundreds of thousands of people dying from the disease in the US alone.
Russia already sent planeloads of masks and other medical aid to Italy, deploying medics in military vehicles labelled: “From Russia with Love.” Russia’s military said the aid included 22 vehicles and mobile disinfection labs. Italian officials publicly thanked Russia for the aid. But a widely circulated report in the La Stampa newspaper cited senior officials calling the aid 80% “useless”.
