Paratroopers of the Ivanovo and Pskov airborne troops units jointly with contingents of the rapid deployment forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization /CSTO/ member states were successfully air dropped on drifting ice floe in the Arctic Ocean, for the first time in history, Commander of the Russian Airborne Troops Colonel General Vladimir Shamanov told TASS on Tuesday.
He said 100 paratroopers from Russia, Belarus and Tajikistan were drilling skills as part of the traning humanitarian rescue and search programme.
"Today, 100 paratroopers, including 85 Russian and 13 Belarusian and Tajik servicemen, were air dropped in the area of the North Pole," he said. "They made parachute jumping from An-74 airplanes. They landed near the Kupol polar station on drifting ice in the exact vicinity of the North Pole."
In the next seven days, they will drill skills necessary to survive in conditions of extremely low temperatures, to rescue polar explorers and crews of crashed planes and wrecked ships, Shamanov said, adding that they would use dogsleds, skis, paraplanes and hang-gliders.
"This is the first-ever international humanitarian search and rescue expedition to the North Pole made by airborne troops of the Collective Security Treaty Organization," he underscored.