"In order to implement the decision of the president of Russia and the supreme commander, Vladimir Putin, the mine clearance unit of the International Mine Action Center of the Russian Armed Forces has left from the Chkalovsky military airfield for the Lao People’s Democratic Republic to assist in demining," the ministry said in a statement.
10 October 2018, 01:47 GMT
According to the ministry, the team, consisting of 36 engineers, will spend five months conducting humanitarian mine clearance in the area of Lak Sao settlement, some 217 miles east of the country's capital of Vientianne. The area has unexploded shells left after US air raids during the Laotian Civil War, the ministry added.
The Laotian Civil War of 1959-1975 was fought between the Lao communist movement and the then ruling government and is considered one of the proxy wars of the Cold War period.
