UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — "We started airdrops some time ago, in some places, over the skepticism of the WFP [World Food Program]. But then they proved to be effective under those circumstances," Churkin stated on Wednesday. "It wasn't very easy to put those things in motion."
Last week, the Russian Defense Ministry announced it had used parachute systems to deliver more than 32 tons of food supplied by the United Nations to Deir ez-Zor, a city in eastern Syria.
A series of more than 40 airdrops since April 10 have provided more than 750 tons of relief for about 100,000 people in Deir-ez-Zor, according to the United Nations.
Although the amount of aid may seem large, weeks of air drops have brought an amount of food equivalent to a truck convoy, UN officials have said.
