Three more Italian regions asking Russian military to help to fight pandemic

MOSCOW, April 27. /TASS/. Authorities of the Italian regions of Piedmont, Apulia and Friuli-Venezia Giulia have appealed to Russia to send Russian military personnel to provide help in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) newspaper reports citing Russian Ambassador to Italy Sergei Razov. "The news of heroic work of our military personnel spread all over Italy, we are receiving hundreds of calls and letters thanking Russia, the Russian president who responded to the request of the Italian prime minister and quickly, literally in just a few days, send such a unit," the newspaper quoted the diplomat as saying. Razov also emphasized, "If the Russian military did not do what is needed, such requests would not be coming in." Earlier, Russian armed forces specialists together with their colleagues from the Italian army disinfected three care home facilities in the province of Brescia in Lombardy (northern Italy). On March 21, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a call when they agreed that Russia would send aid required by Italy to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Between the evening of March 22 and the morning of March 25, Italy welcomed 15 jets, transporting around 100 Russian military virologists and Defense Ministry specialists in epidemiology, eight nursing brigades to fight the virus outbreak as well as equipment for diagnostics and disinfection. The Russian specialists working in Bergamo, one of the most affected cities, and help Italians to defeat the virus. Read more