Russia Preparing 37th Humanitarian Aid Convoy for Donbass

The 37th humanitarian aid convoy for Donbass will deliver more than 500 tons of food and also textbooks for children.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia’s Emergencies Ministry is preparing to send its 37th humanitarian aid convoy to the conflict-torn eastern Ukraine, including textbooks for children as the school year is about to start, the ministry told journalists Monday.

"The trucks that will form the next humanitarian aid convoy for the people of Donetsk and Lugansk regions have set off… today at 07:00 [04:00 GMT]. The convoy will comprise more than 40 vehicles which will bring around 700 tons of textbooks provided by the Russian Ministry of Education for schoolchildren and students of Donbass," the ministry said in a statement.

Aside from the textbooks, more than 500 tons of food, including grains, canned foods, flour and tea, will be delivered to the people of Donbass.

Kiev launched a military operation against independence supporters in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in April 2014. Earlier that year, a new government came to power in Ukraine as a result of a coup.

In November 2014, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree imposing an economic blockade on Donbass and withdrawing all state-funded health, educational and social protections from the region.

Russia has delivered over 43,000 tonnes of aid to Ukraine’s southeast since August 2014 to provide humanitarian relief to local residents amid the fighting.