ADDIS ABABA, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Wednesday that his country had received a first batch of Russian Su-35 fighter jets and that it would later get S-400 air defence systems from Moscow as part of a drive to bolster its military capabilities.
• Abiy said on X the military hardware was milestone in the Horn of Africa country's efforts to strengthen national security and "pre-emptively deter aggression"
• He said Russian President Vladimir Putin had helped ensure that the first batch of Su-35 war planes were delivered a year earlier than scheduled. Ethiopia would get 12 Su-35s and four S-400 batteries, he added
• Abiy did not disclose the value of the agreement or where the aircraft and air defence batteries would be based
• Russian state-owned arms exporter Rosoboronexport told Reuters: "the first batch of two Su-35 aircraft was delivered to the Ethiopian Air Force today," without giving further details
• Ethiopia faces multiple security challenges, including in the northern Tigray region, where a rebel alliance last month launched an offensive against the government, rekindling a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people between 2020 and 2022
• In the previous conflict, its air power — especially through the widespread deployment of foreign-made drones — helped turn the tide of the fighting
• The renewed fighting led to the severing of ties between Ethiopia and its neighbour Eritrea, which Addis Ababa accuses of backing the rebels, although Asmara denies that
(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw and Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Vincent Mumo Nzilani; Editing by Alexander Winning and Timothy Heritage)
