The group, consisting of 120 personnel and four Mi-8 helicopters, provides transport for UN military observers in Sudan, as well as transporting and accompanying cargoes, and carrying out rescue operations.
The first team of Russian peacekeepers arrived in Sudan in April 2006. They are to stay in the country for five or six years, with regular rotation of the peacekeeping contingent.
In March 2007, the UN accused Sudan's government of orchestrating and taking part in "gross violations" in Darfur, a western province of Sudan, and called for urgent international action to protect civilians.
About 7,000 peacekeepers from the 26-nation African Union are currently posted in the war-torn region, but they are expected to be replaced with a 26,000-strong joint force from the African Union and the UN in 2008.
Since the conflict began in February 2003, ethnic violence has taken the lives of at least 200,000 people, mostly among black African farmers, from which rebel groups fighting the central government in Khartoum draw their numbers, according to the UN sources.
