An Emergency Ministry Antonov An-148 plane took off today from the Ramenskoye airfield, outside Moscow, to carry out medical evacuation of two seriously-ill children from the city of Grozny, Chechen Republic to Nizhny Novgorod.

Doctors say that the children are in grave condition and in need of urgent highly-qualified medical aid.

The An-148 is rigged up with modern equipment and a special medical module, a medical ventilation apparatus and cardiomonitors which allow providing medical aid to patients during the flight.

During the flight the children are going to be accompanied by medical personnel of the Tsentrospas team of the Emergencies Ministry and the All-Russian Disaster Medicine Center Zashchita of the Russian Healthcare Ministry and a psychologist of the Center for Emergency Psychological Aid of the Emergencies Ministry.

In Nizhny Novgorod the patients will be delivered to the Volga Federal Medical Research Center of the Russian Ministry of Healthcare to get specialized treatment.