Myanmar military takes delivery of helicopters and aircraft from Russia and China

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar says it has commissioned Russian helicopters and Chinese airplanes into its air force as the two nations continue to supply the military-run government with equipment despite international pressure to end its bloody civil war.

The United States, the European Union and others have imposed sanctions on Myanmar that include the prohibition of arms sales, but Russia and China have been steadily supplying the military, known as the Tatmadaw, with hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment, according to the U.N.

Photos provided by the military indicate it received three Russian Mi-38T helicopters and two Chinese Y-8 aircraft, which experts said will likely be used for operations to bring troops to fight in mountainous areas.

The transport aircraft will add “extra effectiveness” to the Tatmadaw’s “ability to ensure airspace security of Myanmar security,” the military said in a release on the Nov. 7 commissioning of the aircraft in the capital, Naypyitaw.

“The current international conflicts and internal situation clearly indicate the essential role of all types of aircraft,” said Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of Myanmar’s ruling military government, according to the statement from his office.

The supply of new helicopters and planes “just shows the Myanmar military continues to acquire important kit despite economic and diplomatic pressures, with Russia as a critical lifeline,” said Morgan Michaels, a Singapore-based analyst with the International Institute of Strategic Studies, which runs its Myanmar Conflict Map project.

Myanmar is Russia’s first known export customer of the Mi-38T, according to the defense-intelligence company Janes.

“Such preparations by the military commission indicate that it will rely more on air power and increase operations across the country,” said the Military Expertise for Democratic Reform analyst group in a research note. The organization is made up of former Tatmadaw officers who now support the resistance.

The army seized power from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, giving rise to peaceful demonstrations across the country.

After those were put down with lethal force, many opponents of military rule took up arms, and the country is now embroiled in a civil war.

The Tatmadaw has lost large swaths of the country to new armed pro-democracy People’s Defense Forces and established ethnic militias that have been fighting for greater autonomy for decades.

Still, it has been able to use its advantage in heavy weaponry and air power to great effect and has shown no signs of relenting in its fight.

In the run-up to the Dec. 28 election — the first since the military seized power and rejected by many as a sham with Suu Kyi in prison and her party banned — the Tatmadaw has stepped up its campaign to reclaim territory held by opposition forces, and has achieved a series of significant victories while killing scores of civilians in airstrikes.

Over the past six months, it regained control of four major towns in the northern part of Shan state along a major highway linking central Myanmar to China, including Lashio, a strategically important army headquarters in the northeast.

The military also reached an agreement with a major ethnic rebel group in the last week of October, following Chinese-mediated talks, to retake control of the two additional towns, including Mogok, the ruby-mining center in the upper Mandalay region. It has also made gains elsewhere in the country in recent months.

Due to the ongoing fighting, the military government has said that December election polls will not be held in all of Myanmar’s 330 townships and voting will be held in phases.