Russia sends 26.7 tons of humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees in Lebanon

A Russian Emergency Situations Ministry plane will deliver humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees through Lebanon, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry's National Crisis Management Center said.

"The Il-76 aircraft with mobile power stations, 1,500 blankets, 500 sets of dishes, baby food and various preserved food on board left for Beirut from the Moscow region airport Ramenskoye at 10:00 a.m. Moscow time," the ministry said.

The ministry said that the humanitarian aid was for Syrian refugees.

On the way back, the plane will be prepared to bring Russians and CIS citizens willing to leave Syria.

Irina Rossius, the spokesperson of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, has said that Il-76 would deliver 26.7 tons of humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Press secretary of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Adrian Edwards, said in March that Lebanon had almost 340,000 refugees who fled Syria amid the conflict which erupted in the country in March 2011.