Russian military service personnel check crates containing humanitarian aid before being loaded onto an Antonov An-124 Ruslan - Widebody at the former Chateauroux-Deols Marcel Dassault Airport in central France on July 20, 2018. (AFP PHOTO)

MOSCOW, July 21 (Xinhua) -- A Russian military transport aircraft has delivered more than 40 tons of humanitarian aid from France to Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday.

"On July 21, 44 tons of humanitarian cargo were delivered to the airfield of Khmeimim in Syria from French Chateauroux airport by an An-124 Ruslan military transport airplane of the Russian Aerospace Forces," the ministry said in a statement.

The aid includes medicines, emergency medical supplies, clothes, tents, medical equipment and essential items.

They will later be distributed among the civilian population in urgent need of assistance in Eastern Ghouta, especially to hospitals run by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

The delivery was completed with the assistance of the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, the statement said.

France and Russia are jointly delivering humanitarian aid to the former Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta, the French Presidency said in a statement with Russia on Friday.

A Russian cargo plane reportedly arrived late Friday in Chateauroux to load medical equipment and essential goods provided by France, and transport them to Eastern Ghouta, which was recaptured by Syrian troops earlier this year.