Service personnel assist State Material Reserves with offload and transport of medical supplies as part of Operation Courier

Today (13 April 2020), over 40 service members offloaded more than 20 tonnes of personal protective equipment (PPE) from a cargo aircraft from China at M. R. Štefánik Airport in Bratislava. As part of Operation Courier, they transported the medical material to the central warehouses of the State Material Reserves. On request for assistance from the Central Crisis Staff, the Armed Forces are ready to distribute the material to end users. Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď today visited the soldiers at Bratislava Airport.

Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď said: "As part of Operation Courier, we have driven over 300,000km to date, whereas we have delivered over 1,500 tonnes of material, including 100 tonnes of medical supplies. The cooperation with the State Material Reserves and other organisations is very good, which once again testifies to how helpful for domestic crisis management the Armed Forces are. Indeed, they have been continually busy carrying out a lot of different tasks, for which they deserve our thanks." He added that kind words of praise have been put forward to our soldiers and he is sincerely proud of them.

Today's consignment from China contained 20.3 tonnes of personal protective equipment (PPE), namely face masks, FFP2 respirators, gloves and protective suits. They were transported to the central warehouses of the State Material Reserves by SVK Army personnel with their lorries.

Also today, Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď along with Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Security Juraj Krúpa and Chief of Defence General Daniel Zmeko inspected the soldiers serving at the Jarovce border crossings, where they are assisting the SVK Police Corps on mixed patrols.