Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the country had received 12 Russian Su-35 fighter jets, while Rosoboronexport told Reuters the first batch comprised two, leaving the cumulative count unsettled.
Abiy made the announcement on Oct. 28, describing the 12 aircraft as the first Su-35s delivered under an agreement with the Russian government. He credited Russian President Vladimir Putin with bringing the fighter delivery forward by one year against the agreed schedule. Abiy also said Ethiopia would receive four S-400 air-defense batteries, without providing a delivery date.
Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state arms exporter, told Reuters that the Ethiopian Air Force received two aircraft in the first batch that day. Aviation Week placed the handover at Zhukovsky Airport near Moscow and described the pair as the opening delivery in a planned 12-aircraft transfer.
The accounts do not reconcile how many Su-35s Ethiopia had received in total by Oct. 28. Abiy’s statement gave a cumulative figure of 12, while the exporter’s statement described the first batch. EconoTimes previously covered Abiy’s announcement that Ethiopia had received 12 Su-35s.
Abiy presented the purchases as a means of strengthening Ethiopia’s security and discouraging aggression, but did not identify a specific adversary. Reuters reported that Abiy had not disclosed the contract value, the S-400 delivery schedule or where the aircraft and air-defense systems would be based. The reports gave no financing terms.
Separately, the United Nations Secretary-General expressed concern on Oct. 10 about renewed fighting in Tigray, Afar and Amhara and reports of Eritrean forces in Ethiopia. The U.N. statement did not connect those developments to the arms purchases. The cited reports provided no next delivery milestone or public timetable for the S-400 batteries.
