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Putin Says Russia Sending 'Humanitarian' Convoy Into Ukraine

August 11, 2014
by RFE/RL

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso that Russia is sending a 'humanitarian' convoy into Ukraine with supervision by the International Red Cross.

Barroso had warned Putin against any action in Ukraine, including unauthorized humanitarian deliveries.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry told RFE/RL's Ukrainian service that it has not agreed to a Russian humanitarian convoy, and has no information about what Russia was planning to ship into eastern Ukraine or how the deliveries would be distributed.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said earlier on August 11 that he saw a 'high probability' of Russia trying to intervene militarily in Ukraine 'under the guise of a humanitarian operation.'

Rasmussen said Russia is 'developing the narrative and the pretext' for illegal military operations in Ukraine.

He said NATO sees no sign that Moscow is pulling back some 20,000 troops, which it has deployed close to Russia's border with its western neighbor, and that the military buildup 'could be used to conduct such illegal military operations in Ukraine.'

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed previously on August 11 that he reached agreement with Kyiv for Russian humanitarian deliveries into eastern Ukraine under the supervision of the International Red Cross.

But Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said a humanitarian mission would be allowed only if it is 'an international one without any military escort' by Russian forces.

Poroshenko also said he was in talks with European Union officials about the delivery of international humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine.

He said Barroso on August 11 pledged more than $3 million of European humanitarian aid for eastern Ukraine.

Sitara Jabeen, a spokeswoman for the International Red Cross, said on August 11 that her organization would only be involved in aid deliveries into eastern Ukraine if they were carried out 'according to our own principles, according to our own modalities.'

Jabeen said the Red Cross has made it very clear to Russia's Foreign Ministry that it would only distribute aid if all parties -- Moscow, the government in Kyiv, and pro-Russian separatists -- accept the Red Cross as 'a neutral and impartial organization.'

Lavrov criticized the United States, Britain, and France on the issue on August 11 over the issue of humanitarian deliveries -- claiming that Western powers oppose any humanitarian aid going into eastern Ukraine.

However, those Western powers have not opposed humanitarian aid deliveries -- only the idea of Russian military forces using a so-called humanitarian aid convoy as an excuse to deploy Russian military forces into eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry says Russia has tried since August 8 to send military convoys into Ukraine – claiming the convoys contained humanitarian aid, but by passing Ukrainian border guards by crossing the border in areas under the control of pro-Russian separatists.

Kyiv and Western powers say Russia is using such shipments to deliver weaponry to the separatist fighters.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian military forces on August 11 continued to shell the pro-Russian separatist bastion of Donetsk.

Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said that Ukraine's army had cut Donetsk off from Luhansk, the other main separatist-held city in eastern Ukraine.

Lysenko also said Russian aircraft violated Ukrainian airspace at least five times since August 10 and that Russian forces continue to fire artillery barrages from Russian territory at Ukrainian troops who are battling the pro-Russian separatists in the east.

Lysenko also said a total of 568 Ukrainian troops have been killed during the past four months of fighting and that 2,120 soldiers had been wounded.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian service, Reuters, AP, AFP, ITAR-TASS, and Interfax

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/article/26525197.html

Copyright (c) 2014. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.