Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says a Russian cargo ship that turned back while travelling to Syria is carrying three repaired helicopters as well as air defence systems. But he denied of supplies of any arms which could be used against civilians.

Sergei Lavrov said, "We are sending no battleships to Syria, we have been saying publicly that we are implementing the contracts which we have to supply arms to Syria . Those armaments are entirely defensive and they mostly consist of air defence systems which can not be used against population, which can only be used to respond to an outside aggression."