Portugal will send six Kamov firefighting helicopters to Ukraine, currently without a license to operate because they are of Russian origin and one of which is inoperative, Defense Minister Helena Carreiras announced today.
“At the request of Ukraine and in conjunction with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, we will make available to Ukraine our fleet of Kamov helicopters which, due to the current scenario, the sanctions imposed on Russia, we are no longer able to operate, in fact they do not have their certificates of airworthiness and we won’t even be able to repair them”, announced Helena Carreiras.
Speaking to the Portuguese press in Brussels, at the end of the meeting of defense ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in which the war in Ukraine was discussed, the minister pointed out that “six helicopters that need repairs, one of them inoperative because it was crashed”.
Helena Carreiras stressed that these six Kamov helicopters, which will be “transferred as they are”, will be “very useful to Ukraine and this transfer was very grateful to our Ukrainian counterparts”.
“Ukrainians know the conditions in which the material is found”, pointed out the Defense Minister, recalling the “logistical chain of similar helicometers” held by Ukraine, which will be able to repair them.
The idea is for the transfer of aircraft to take place “as quickly as possible”, said Helena Carreiras.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine caused the flight of millions of people and the death of thousands of civilians, according to the United Nations, which ranks this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939). -1945).
Source: JN