Russia Not Planning New Helicopter Deliveries via UN to Afghanistan

Russia is not planning to organize new deliveries of helicopters to Afghanistan through the United Nations, Sergey Yemelyanov, director of department for aviation industry of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In late March, though, the CEO of the company Russian Helicopters, Andrey Boginsky, told Sputnik that Moscow and Kabul were discussing through state intermediary agencies possibility of delivering Russian helicopters to Afghanistan.

"As you know, the first delivery of helicopters to Afghanistan was carried out through the UN Security Council. As far as I know, new supplies are not on the agenda at the moment," Yemelyanov said.

On March 17, the Afghan president's national security adviser, Mohammad Hanif Atmar, held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev in Moscow. Following the meetings, Atmar told Sputnik that Kabul and Moscow had achieved noticeable progress in regulating the deliveries and maintenance of Russian helicopters.

In August 2016, the Russian Foreign Ministry's Director of the Second Asian Department, Zamir Kabulov, said that Russia and Afghanistan were discussing various formats for delivering Russian Mi-35 Hind attack helicopters to Kabul. According to Kabulov, Afghanistan would like to receive the aircraft as close to "free of charge" as possible, while Russia insists the deliveries be on a commercial basis.

In February 2016, Kabulov said that Moscow was not entertaining new deliveries of Mi-35 helicopters to Afghanistan, but rather the completion of old contracts, particularly one signed in 2002. However, the 15-year-old contract has not progressed, as the United States has not financed the deal as agreed in the contract.