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Ukraine Minister Denounces Russian Aid Convoy

by VOA News August 13, 2014

Ukraine's interior minister insisted Wednesday that the Russian convoy headed to the war-torn eastern region will not be allowed to enter the country.

Arsen Avakov called the convoy a 'provocation by the cynical aggressor.' Russia says the nearly 300 trucks that left Moscow Tuesday are carrying hundreds of tons of aid to civilians in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine has said the goods will only be allowed entry if they are first inspected by the International Red Cross. For its part, the relief agency said Tuesday it had no direct contact with Russian authorities about the shipments, and it is awaiting information on the convoy's cargo.

While Ukraine and Russia had reportedly agreed that the Russian aid would be sent into Ukraine through a border crossing in the country's Kharkiv province, the chairman of the Kharkiv regional administration (, Igor Baluta,) said via Facebook Wednesday that the aid would not cross the border in his region.

Kyiv authorities had earlier said the Russian trucks could transfer their cargo at the border to trucks leased by the Red Cross, which has described the humanitarian situation in strife-torn eastern Ukraine as dire.

The Red Cross says much of eastern Ukraine, including the hub cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, lack medical supplies, water and electricity, as pro-Russian separatists continue battling Ukrainian troops trying to suppress the four-month rebellion.

The United Nations human rights office said Wednesday that the death toll from the fighting in eastern Ukraine, which began in mid-April, appears to have doubled in the last two weeks, reaching at least 2,086 as of August 10.

It is unclear where the aid convoy is now headed and whether Ukraine will allow its cargo into the country through a different border crossing.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said earlier this week that there was 'a high probability' Moscow would intervene militarily eastern Ukraine 'under the guise of a humanitarian operation.'

Russia's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday called assertions that the aid convoy could be used as a pretext for a Russian invasion 'absurd.'

The U.S. State Department Tuesday said it fully backs Ukrainian demands for border checks on the Russian cargo, to ensure the cargo does not contain weaponry earmarked for rebels. Spokeswoman Marie Harf also reiterated that 'Russia has no right to move into Ukraine unilaterally...without Kyiv's permission.'

Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin arrived Wednesday in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in March. Putin was to chair a session of his advisory Security Council there later Wednesday, and hold a meeting there Thursday with members of his cabinet and Russian lawmakers.