Russia's Multipurpose Hospital Unit Starts Operating in Syria: Health Ministry

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia's multipurpose hospital unit started operating in Syria's Aleppo to assist the victims of the devastating quakes that rocked the country and neighboring Turkiye in early February, the Russian Health Ministry said on Saturday.

"A multiprofessional team of doctors from the Federal Center for Disaster Medicine of the Russian Ministry of Health has arrived in Aleppo, Syria, to help the victims of the earthquake. The Russian specialists have set up a multipurpose field hospital and have already begun receiving patients," the statement read.

Around 30 professionals, including surgeons and traumatologists, physicians and pediatricians, neurologists and sonographers as well as nursing staff are providing care in over 10 medical fields.

"Russia and Syria have been traditionally cooperating in many areas. I am confident that this kind of interaction will continue and expand," Alexey Kuznetsov, assistant to the Russian health minister, said.

On February 6, two earthquakes of magnitudes 7.7 and 7.6 hit the south-eastern regions of Turkiye with an interval of nine hours. The underground shocks were felt in 11 Turkish provinces and neighboring states, with Syria affected the most. According to the latest data, 47,932 people were killed by the earthquakes in Turkey alone, with thousands more in Syria.