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Kosovo Serbs to receive Russian aid next Tuesday

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BELGRADE, April 18 (RIA Novosti) - The first trucks carrying Russian humanitarian aid to Serbs in Kosovo will be delivered to the north of the province by the Red Cross on Tuesday, local officials said.

The supplies, worth around 40 million rubles ($1.7 million), were flown to Belgrade in four deliveries earlier this month.

A total of 150 metric tons of food, including canned meat and fish, baby food, rice, and sugar, along with substantial amounts of medical equipment, medicines, disinfectants and other healthcare products have been delivered to the Serbian capital for shipment to Kosovo.

The trucks will bring canned meat and fish to the five main municipalities of Kosovo on Tuesday and Thursday, while rice and sugar will be delivered after April 27. The aid will be distributed to a total of 6,500 Serbian families from May 5.

"Each family will be given ten cans of fish and 14 cans of meat, five kilograms of rice and two kilograms of sugar," said Dragica Kljajic, a coordinator of the Red Cross social welfare department in Serbia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to provide humanitarian aid to Serb areas in Kosovo last month after a request from Serbia's government.

Kosovo, with a 90% ethnic-Albanian majority, has been formally recognized as a sovereign state by 36 countries including the United States and most European Union members since it proclaimed its independence from Serbia on February 17.

Russia and China continue to back Belgrade's position that Kosovo will always remain a part of Serbia.

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