Over 30 professionals work in the unit, including surgeons, traumatologists, physicians, pediatricians, neurologists, and sonographers
Russia’s multipurpose hospital officially started operating on 11 March in Aleppo, Syria, to assist in the treatment of victims from the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake, which resulted in the deaths of more than 50,000 people in Syria and Turkiye combined.
“A multi-professional 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 said, according to Sputnik.
According to the reports, more than 30 professionals work in the unit, including surgeons, traumatologists, physicians, pediatricians, neurologists, and sonographers.
“Russia and Syria have been traditionally cooperating in many areas. I am confident that this kind of interaction will continue and expand,” said Alexey Kuznetsov, assistant to the Russian health minister.
Meanwhile, China has repeatedly called for the US to end its illegal military occupation of Syria and stop looting the country’s resources, stressing that its continued presence has worsened Syria’s humanitarian crisis.
“We call on the United States to sincerely respect the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of other countries and to immediately stop its illegal military presence and marauding in Syria,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a news conference on 11 March.
“The United States has illegally intervened in military activities related to the Syrian crisis, which has led to the death of a large number of innocent civilians and a serious humanitarian disaster,” Mao added before calling on US officials to lift crushing economic sanctions on Syria.
China was among the first nations to send aid to Syria following last month’s devastating earthquake when aid deliveries from the west were being held up due to US sanctions.
The earthquake has spurred talks for the reintegration of Syria into the regional fold.
Countries such as Saudi Arabia, a principal instigator of the Syrian war, expressed the need to end the international and regional isolation of Syria – isolation which Washington continues to encourage despite its impediment of humanitarian aid to the disaster-stricken nation.
In addition, Tunisian President Kais Saeid disclosed that Syria and Tunisia were set to restore diplomatic relations, which Tunisia severed in 2012 due to what western and Gulf media claimed was the government’s ‘brutal crackdown on protests.’
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gave a televised speech on 16 February, in which he highlighted the repercussions of the deadly earthquake and thanked the countries that rushed to aid Syria following the disaster.
The “twelve years of war and embargo … gave Syrian society the expertise and the ability to act quickly and effectively in the early hours of the earthquake,” Assad said.
SYRIA 360° INTERNATIONALIST 