Translated material
Construction battalion for Lebanon
Russians will take food and cooks with them
In Kashira, near Moscow, where a bridge brigade is stationed, fully staffed by contract soldiers, preparations are being completed for sending a Russian battalion to Lebanon. The press service of the rear services of the Armed Forces of the Ministry of Defense told Vremya Novostey that a separate bridge battalion of up to 400 people will be transferred to Lebanon to participate in restoration work. About 100 units of standard equipment will be sent to Lebanon - pile-loading machines, earth-moving and transport vehicles, structures for rebuilding bridges. The battalion will be assigned up to two platoons of military personnel with small arms. They will provide security for the Russian engineering and construction battalion.Deputy Chief of Logistics Lieutenant General Ivan Tsygankov, who visited Lebanon with the advance group of the Ministry of Defense, said that the Lebanese have identified five main bridges and one reserve for restoration by Russian military builders. The length of the bridges ranges from 80 to 100 m, and the load capacity is up to 40 tons. The Russians will help Lebanon outside the framework of the UN peacekeeping operation. The Russian bridge battalion will be deployed 8 km south of the city of Saida in tents next to the Lebanese military unit. Products, cooks and cooking equipment will be taken from Russia. Drinking water, fresh and perishable food will be purchased locally.
Military personnel with equipment will be delivered from Novorossiysk to the Lebanese port of Jiya, 12 km from Saida, in the first half of October by the Russian cargo-passenger ship Yuri Arshenevsky. The restoration of six bridges is planned to be completed in three months. “To continue working, we will need to replenish supplies. This will be a different decision. In the event of a resumption of hostilities in Lebanon, the decision to evacuate the battalion will be made by the Russian government,” General Tsygankov noted. According to the Lebanese government, 107 bridges and 136 highways, including international ones, were destroyed in the country. The approximate cost of restoring all the destruction exceeds $3.5 billion.