MOSCOW, August 22 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow has decided to begin moving its convoy of humanitarian aid toward the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk and will oppose any attempts to disrupt the badly needed humanitarian mission, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday on its website.
“It’s impossible to bear this type of lawlessness, outright lies and inability to agree. All of the pretexts for delaying the delivery of aid to the people in the region of the humanitarian catastrophe have been exhausted. The Russian side has made the decision to act. Our column with humanitarian aid is beginning its movement toward Luhansk,” the ministry said.
Earlier, Andre Lorsch, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) public relations coordinator in Kiev, said that although the ICRC had received a guarantee of the convoy’s safe passage in the Luhansk Region, it was still concerned about the general situation in the region.
As of August 21, 34 trucks with Russian humanitarian aid have passed customs inspections at the Russian-Ukrainian border.
In August, Russia suggested sending a humanitarian aid convoy accompanied by the ICRC representatives to eastern Ukraine in light of the tragic humanitarian situation there. On August 12, a convoy of 280 trucks, carrying about 2,000 tons of humanitarian aid, left Moscow Region for Ukraine.
