Russia on Thursday acknowledged for the first time a cargo ship forced to turn back from British waters was carrying attack helicopters bound for Syria that it had repaired for Bashar al-Assad's regime.
The ship, which headed back to Russia after its British insurer withdrew cover, would return to the port of Murmansk on June 23 to sail under the Russian flag rather than that of the Caribbean island of Curacao, said foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.
"The ship Alaed sailed on June 11 with a cargo including Mi-25 helicopters which are the property of the Syrian side," he told reporters. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also confirmed the nature of the cargo, saying the ship had carried "three helicopters that had been repaired" by Russia for Syria under an agreement dating back to 2008.
"The repairs were quite serious and thorough," Lavrov told the Echo Moscow radio, adding that the helicopters were being transported in dismantled form. Lavrov blamed the fact the ship had to turn back on the "unreliability" of the British insurance system. "Contracts and agreements must be fulfilled. That is an irrefutable truth," he added.