Myanmar claims to have ordered Russian helicopters and Chinese jets into its air force as the two countries proceed with the supply of the military-led government with the equipment, even though the international community is pressurizing the country to stop its bloody civil war.

The United States, the European Union, and others have sanctioned Myanmar, which includes banning arms sales, yet Russia and China have been gradually providing the military, also referred to as the Tatmadaw, with hundreds of millions of dollars of military gear, respectively, the U.N. has reported.

The military has provided photos showing that it received three Russian Mi-38T helicopters and two Chinese Y-8 planes, which experts claimed will probably be engaged in the operations to transport troops to fight in mountainous regions.

The transport aircraft will provide the Tatmadaw with an additional capability to provide airspace security assurance of the Myanmar security matters, which the military said in a statement on the Nov. 7 commissioning of the aircraft in the capital, Naypyitaw.

According to the statement by the office of the Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the ruling military government in Myanmar, it is clear that all forms of aircraft are required due to the current situation in the country in the context of international conflicts and the state of affairs within the country.

The Myanmar military is still able to buy significant equipment even when economically and diplomatically isolated, and Russia has played a vital role in providing Myanmar with such equipment, as evidenced by the increase in the supply of new helicopters and airplanes, according to Morgan Michaels, a Singapore-based analyst in the International Institute of Strategic Studies, which is running its Myanmar Conflict Map project.

The defense-intelligence firm Janes says that Myanmar was the first known export client of the Mi-38T.

This kind of military preparation shows that the military commission will depend more on air power and expand its work nationwide, according to the Military Expertise for Democratic Reform analyst group in a research note. The group consists of former Tatmadaw officers who joined the resistance.

In February 2021, the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi was toppled by the army, creating peaceful protests within the country.

Once they had been suppressed with murder weapons, a large number of those who opposed military governance took arms, and the nation was plunged into a civil war.

The Tatmadaw has been deprived of major parts of the nation by several new armed pro-democracy forces of the People’s Defense Forces, and has even built ethnic militias that have been battling for decades to gain even more autonomy.

Nevertheless, it has been able to leverage its superiority in heavy weapons and air power to its maximum effect and has not shown any signs of giving up in its struggle.

Months before yet another election that is widely viewed as a military dictatorship, even the first since 1962 and the military takeover, the Tatmadaw has intensified its efforts to retaliate, with opposition forces gaining ground, and the military killing scores of civilians in airstrikes.

It has, within the last six months, recaptured four large towns in the north of Shan state on a major highway connecting central Myanmar and China, Lashio, which is an army headquarters of great strategic importance in the northeast.

The military also settled the score in agreement with a great ethnic rebel group during the final week of October as a result of Chinese-mediated bargains to reclaim control of the two further towns, including Mogok, the ruby-mining hub within the upper Mandalay region. It has also gained other parts of the country in recent months.

The military government has indicated that because of the fighting, the December election polls will not be conducted in all of the 330 townships in Myanmar and will be conducted in phases.