Konflikten i Syrien

Russia was “surging military supplies” to Syria even as negotiators from both sides of the war met in Switzerland in February, according to Shahbandar, the rebel adviser.

The supply of Russian arms includes night-vision equipment, guided missiles, drones and vacuum bombs, Monzer Akbik, chief of staff for the opposition Syrian National Coalition, said by phone from Abu Dhabi.

Maritime records show regular shipments to Syria from the southern Ukrainian port of Oktyabrsk, which Russia uses for military exports, said Jeremy Binnie, a Middle East analyst at Jane’s Defense Weekly. Those supplies most likely consist of spare parts for T-72 tanks, Mi-24 attack helicopters and other equipment, Binnie said. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is based nearby in Crimea, which Putin seized after bloody protests led to the ouster of Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych.

Despite encouraging figures, the recent escalation of tensions with Ukraine poses a major threat to Russian rotorcraft production. Ukraine has traditionally supplied turboshaft engines for both Mil and Kamov designs. According to Vyacheslav Boguslaev, president of Zaporozhie-based engine manufacturer Motor Sich, the company produced 1,000 engines for helicopters last year and supplied most of them to Russian manufacturing plants in Kazan, Ulan-Ude, Rostov-on-Don, Kumertau and Arseniev. About a hundred Ukrainian-made jet engines, locally developed D436 and AI222 designs, went to Antonov and Yakovlev aircraft assembled in Russia.