MOSCOW — Russia sent Turkey a seventh batch of components for the S-400 missile systems over the weekend. The deliveries began on July 12 with three cargo planes delivering several tractors and a loading vehicle from the S-400 complex to Murted Air Base. The deliveries are set to be completed by April 2020 and Turkey expects to dispatch more specialists to Russia for training on operating the missile defense system.

"Their current number is not enough. Now there are 100 specialists but this number may be increased tenfold," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday. Erdogan hailed the S-400 deal as “the most important agreement in [Turkish] modern history.”

"Turkey is not getting prepared for war," he stressed. "These missile defense systems are meant to ensure peace and security in our country. We make other steps to improve our defense capacities."

In turn, Moscow said the agreement is critical in that it sets the tone for more robust military-technical cooperation with other Middle Eastern countries. The head of the the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, called the S-400 deliveries “a first shot.” Slutsky has been under US and European sanctions since 2014 over Russia’s takeover of Crimea and the war in east Ukraine.