Putin's Russia has loaded 280 trucks with 2,000 tons of humanitarian aid for war torn eastern Ukraine - while Ukrainian Officials state the convoy will not be allowed to cross the Border because "it has not been certified by the Red Cross?"
Ukraine says trucks carrying purported aid from Russia won’t be allowed across border
_http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/08/12/russia-sends-purported-aid-trucks-to-ukraine-as-nato-secretary-general-issues/
Tuesday August 12, 2014
Ukrainian officials said Tuesday that 280 trucks thought to be carrying humanitarian aid from Russia to the war-torn eastern Ukraine city of Luhansk would not be allowed to cross the border between the two countries.
Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said the convoy would not be allowed to pass because it had not been certified by the Red Cross. Lysenko also showed a covertly filmed video appearing to show vehicles similar to the white-canopied trucks dispatched from Moscow on Tuesday parked at a military base in Russia.
One frame displayed by Lysenko shows uniformed troops lined up in front of one the trucks.
Russian television reported early Tuesday that trucks carrying 2,000 tons of humanitarian aid were headed to Ukraine. NTV television showed hundreds of white trucks gathered at a depot outside Moscow, and said they were carrying everything from baby food to sleeping bags. A Russian Orthodox Priest sprinkled holy water on the trucks, some of which bore a red cross, before their departure. They could take up to a day to arrive at their destination.
However, Andre Loersch, a spokesman for the Red Cross in Kiev, told The Associated Press by phone that despite the general agreement among all parties, he had “no information about the content” of the trucks and did not know where they were headed.
“At this stage we have no agreement on this, and it looks like the initiative of the Russian Federation,” he said.
The Ukrainian government has insisted that aid must cross at a government-held border crossing. At least 60 miles of the border is currently in rebel hands.
Alexander Drobyshevsky, a spokesman for Russia’s emergency ministry that is conducting the mission, told the AP that his organization had “not yet defined” where the trucks would cross the border. He said it could take several days for them to reach Ukraine.
Western officials have repeatedly expressed fears that any Russian aid mission would serve as a precursor to action by Russian ground troops. Late last week, U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and British Prime Minister David Cameron issued statements proclaiming that such action would violate international law.
However, Ukraine said Monday that it had agreed to send aid to the city of Lunhansk, one of two major rebel enclaves that are still holding out despite being battered by fighting. After announcing the aid mission on Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko agreed that “any Russian intervention in Ukraine without the formal, express consent and authorization would be unacceptable and a violation of international law,” according to a White House statement.
Some of the heaviest impact on civilians from fighting has been seen in Luhansk. In their latest status update Monday, city authorities said the 250,000 residents remaining from the pre-war population of 420,000 had had no electricity or water supplies for nine days. Much of the border with Luhansk province is under separatist control.
Also on Monday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Reuters that there were no signs that Russia had withdrawn any of its troops amassed at the border with Ukraine. When a reporter asked him about the possibility of a Russian invasion, Rasmussen said, “There is a high probability.
“We see the Russians developing the narrative and the pretext for such an operation under the guise of a humanitarian operation, and we see a military build-up that could be used to conduct such illegal military operations in Ukraine,” he added.
Also Monday, Ukraine’s military claimed that the numbers of Russian troops along the border had risen dramatically. Lysenko claimed to The New York Times that Russia had 45,000 troops at the frontier supported by 160 tanks, 1,360 armored vehicles, 390 artillery systems, 150 truck-mounted ground-to-ground rocket launchers, 192 fighter jets and 137 helicopters. Lysenko’s estimates had not been independently verified. NATO has previously estimated that 20,000 Russian troops have gathered at the border.
The United Nations has estimated that more than 1,300 people have been killed since April, when government forces launched a campaign to recapture eastern Ukraine from rebels who had gained control of two provinces under the banner of the Putin-coined term “New Russia.”
The other major separatist-controlled city, Donetsk, has been under heavy bombardment from Ukrainian forces. Lysenko said that Ukrainian forces were moving closer to encircling the city. At least 300,000 civilians, encouraged by Kiev, are believed to have fled the city, which formerly had a population of 1 million. Residents who have stayed say that mortar and artillery fire can be heard daily. There have been civilian casualties, though estimates vary widely.
RT: Kiev: Russia’s humanitarian convoy will not be allowed into Ukraine
_http://rt.com/news/179740-humanitarian-aid-russia-ukraine/
Russian humanitarian convoy departs to E. Ukraine (VIDEO)
Kiev intends to hold up the internationally-supervised Russian humanitarian aid convoy meant for East Ukraine for at least a week, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military said.
Ukraine said the time is needed for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is contributing to the Moscow-initiated mission, to establish where the aid should go in the Ukrainian region engulfed by civil war.
However, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry spokesman, Aleksandr Dobryshevsky, said that the destination for the Russian humanitarian aid will be determined jointly by Moscow’s representatives, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Ukrainian government.
The convoy of 280 trucks dispatched on Tuesday “did not pass the ICRC certification,” Andrey Lysenko said.
Presidential aide Valery Chaliy said Kiev wants the entire cargo to be unloaded on the border and transferred to Red Cross vehicles.
We will not allow any escort of the Russian Emergencies Ministry or Russian military,” he said. “Ukraine will take responsibility for this procedure.”
Lysenko claimed that the convoy consists of repainted military trucks and is accompanied by an S-300 air defense system, according to the news agency Ukraine National News.
He didn’t elaborate on why Russia would need to send a system that is meant to protect key strategic positions from enemy aircraft and missiles, but is useless in guarding a convoy of vehicles on the move.
The ICRC said it was informed by Moscow that the convoy had been dispatched, but had yet to receive detailed shipping lists and distribution plans.
“The situation is changing by the hour and right now we are not in a position to provide further details now as to how this operation could take place,” ICRC spokesperson Anastasiya Isyuk told RT.
Earlier, Moscow said that the humanitarian mission had been agreed by all parties concerned.
Russia has sent some 2,000 tons of aid to Ukraine, including food, medicine, sleeping bags and power generators.
The cargo is meant for the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which have seriously suffered in more than three months of warfare, as Ukrainian troops used heavy artillery, bomber aircraft and tanks to advance on cities controlled by the militias.
Kiev earlier accused Moscow of trying to conduct a stealth invasion of Ukraine under a guise of humanitarian aid, saying that Russian troops would be posing as guards of the convoy while actually tasked with starting an offensive.
The narrative was supported by some western countries, which said that any humanitarian mission not backed by Kiev would be considered an attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Russia dismissed the accusations as nonsense.
In another media briefing on Monday evening, Lysenko stated that the humanitarian convoy to Ukraine was organized“under an agreement between [President] Petro Poroshenko and the Red Cross,” and that Russia “wants to present this mission as its own initiative” as a publicity stunt.
Lavrov: Ukraine ready to accept Russia’s humanitarian aid (video)
_http://rt.com/news/179820-lavrov-convoy-ukraine-agree/
Tuesday August 12, 2014
The Russian Foreign Ministry has received a note from the Ukrainian government expressing its readiness to accept the Russian humanitarian aid. The news came as Moscow agreed on the Ukrainian presence in the humanitarian convoy.
The arrangements for the humanitarian aid convoy have been completely agreed upon, with all of Kiev’s wishes taken into account, including the route, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters at a press conference in Sochi.
“We have agreed on a route convenient for the Kiev authorities. We agreed that our trucks would have Ukrainian number plates during their way through Ukrainian territory. We also agreed to take on board not only the representatives of the Red Cross and the OSCE, but also representatives of the Ukrainian authorities,” Lavrov said.
“The convoy has set off,” he added. “We have received a note with the confirmation of the Ukrainian side’s readiness to receive the aid.”
The trucks are carrying food, medication and drinking water.
Earlier, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military said that Kiev intended to hold up the internationally-supervised aid convoy meant for the Ukraine's east for at least a week. Ukraine said the time was needed for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to establish where exactly the aid should go.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has abandoned the idea to reload the aid from Russian trucks onto Red Cross transport after a search at the border, according to Lavrov said.
“They raised the question of reloading the aid from all 287 trucks onto the trucks rented by the Red Cross, but, for obvious reasons, abandoned this idea, because it would only complicate and make the implementation of this humanitarian action more expensive,” the Russian FM said.
“I count a lot on the hope that public statements made by some Kiev authorities with the demand for new conditions will be disavowed and won’t interfere with the accomplishment of the agreements reached between Russia, Ukraine and the Red Cross,” he added.
Lavrov stressed that Kiev is guaranteeing the safety of the convoy.
“We firmly rely on the assurances by the Ukrainian authorities. They are guaranteeing the safety of the whole convoy’s movement on the territory controlled by the Ukrainian special forces,” he said.
Russia is also counting on the anti-government forces to ensure security. The self-defense troops in eastern Ukraine have already been informed:
“We expect the self-defense forces to express the same attitude toward this humanitarian action. I’m sure there’ll be no breaches, as they are now on the territory, the residents of which require badly humanitarian assistance,” Lavrov stated.
Earlier Tuesday, the Ukrainian government in Kiev announced that it would hold up the humanitarian convoy for at least a week, in order to give time for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to establish where the aid should go.
However, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said that the destination for the Russian humanitarian aid will be determined jointly by Moscow’s representatives, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Ukrainian government.
Andrey Lysenko, the spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, claimed that the convoy consisted of repainted military trucks and was accompanied by an S-300 air defense system, according to the news agency Ukraine National News.
On Tuesday, the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk, one of the biggest regional centers, declared a state of humanitarian catastrophe: there are no medical supplies, electricity or lighting. There is also a lack of mobile and internet communication. Some 250,000 civilians are unable to leave, a statement on the city council’s website said.
A total of 117,000 people are internally displaced in Ukraine, according to the latest UN data, and around 730,000 people have reportedly fled to Russia.
The truth about events in eastern Ukraine has started to appear in the Western media, Lavrov said, and thanked Russian journalists for the contribution they have made in covering these events.
“Western media are beginning, although unwillingly, to cover the situation in detail, showing all the horrors experienced by the civilian population,” Lavrov said.
