Russia And Ukraine Reach Deal Over Aid Convoy

Russia And Ukraine Reach Deal Over Aid Convoy

By Nikolaus Von Twickel, dpa

MOSCOW — Russia and Ukraine have reached an agreement on sending humanitarian aid to the embattled city of Luhansk, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says.

“Thanks to the support from the international community, we managed to avoid an escalation regarding the humanitarian aid from Russia,” Poroshenko says.

Finnish President Sauli Niisto says that Russia, Ukraine, and the International Committee of the Red Cross have reached an understanding.

“We heard that the humanitarian convoy is going forward,” he says after a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Sochi.

Ukraine, which sees Russia as an aggressor, had insisted that the convoy can enter the country only under the auspices of international organizations, such as the ICRC or the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Moscow denies supporting the pro-Russian separatists and has rejected accusations that the vehicles could be carrying weapons.

Earlier Friday, reporters were shown some of the trucks from inside. They contained sacks with food aid and many of them were not even half full, a photographer for the European Pressphoto Agency said.

Ukraine also said that a Russian military convoy had entered its territory late Thursday.

Military spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkovsky said that the convoy headed from the Izvaryne border crossing to Molodohvardiysk, a city roughly half way between the Russian border and Luhansk, local media reported.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen confirmed media reports that Russian military vehicles have crossed the border into Ukraine, his office said Friday.

“Last night we saw a Russian incursion, a crossing of the Ukrainian border,” Rasmussen told journalists in Copenhagen, adding, “It just confirms the fact that we see a continued flow of weapons and fighters from Russia into the eastern Ukraine.”

“It’s a clear demonstration of the continued Russian involvement in the destabilization of eastern Ukraine,” he says.

Rasmussen called on Russia to “pull back its troops from the Ukrainian border, to stop the flow of weapons, fighters and money into Ukraine, to stop the support for armed separatists in eastern Ukraine and engage in a constructive dialogue with the government in Kiev.”

The Russian border guard service said Friday that it could not confirm the incident, the Interfax news agency reported.

The Ukrainian government has complained for months that Russian military units are crossing into its territory.

EU foreign ministers, who discussed developments in Ukraine at emergency talks in Brussels, said they were alarmed at the reports.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said that if there are any Russian military personnel or vehicles in eastern Ukraine, “they need to be withdrawn immediately or the consequences could be very serious.”

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said that an incursion would be a “gross violation of international law.” His Lithuanian counterpart, Linas Linkevicius, accused Russia of using its humanitarian convoy for “distraction and covering” while escalation continues.

“The most efficient aid from Russia to Ukraine would be to call back all these terrorist leaders, to stop supporting them by weapons, by tanks, rocket launchers (and) heavy weapons,” Linkevicius said.

The fighting in eastern Ukraine continued unabated. Lysenko said that five soldiers were killed in fighting during the past 24 hours.

Authorities in the rebel-held city of Donetsk said Friday that 11 civilians had been killed during heavy artillery shelling on Thursday.

Authorities in Luhansk said that the city was cut off from electricity and mains water for the 13th day and that medical supplies were running short.

Ukraine sent its own humanitarian convoy to the region. Iryna Herashchenko, an aide to President Petro Poroshenko, said that trucks with 300 tons of aid have arrived in the Luhansk region and that Red Cross workers had begun unloading them.

AFP Photo/Anatolii Stepanov

Interested in world news? Sign up for our daily email newsletter!

Advertising

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

Donald Trump
Former President Donald Trump

Imagine this: You’re a clerk to a judge in a New York State court. You graduated from the Cardozo School of Law in 2010, and since then, you have worked as an associate in a New York law firm. For five years, you worked for the City of New York in its Special Litigation Unit handling law suits against the city. You have been the clerk to Judge Arthur Engoron since 2019, getting up in the morning and traveling by subway into Manhattan to your office in his chambers, or sitting beside him in court, advising him on cases, filings, motions – the constant flow of legal documents and questions that any judge in a big city court deals with constantly.

Keep reading...Show less
Trump Touts New Push To 'Repeal And Replace' Obamacare

The late Sen. John McCain gives thumbs down to Affordable Care Act repeal in July 2017

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

Donald Trump is once again living in the past, trying to resurrect a Republican political debacle that even the Freedom Caucus has abandoned: Obamacare repeal. “The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives," he spewed on Truth Social on Saturday.

Keep reading...Show less
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}