MOSCOW, August 11 (RIA Novosti) – Russia and the International Committee of the Red Cross are sending a convoy with humanitarian cargo to eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin press service said Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in a phone conversation that “the Russian side, in cooperation with representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, is sending a humanitarian convoy to Ukraine.”
At the UN Security Council last Tuesday, Russia proposed to deploy an international humanitarian mission with Russian humanitarian aid under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Ukraine’s troubled eastern regions.
A number of Western countries, such as the United States, Britain and Germany argued that Russian humanitarian aid should only be delivered to Ukraine after Moscow secured Kiev’s consent, otherwise it would be «unjustified and illegal."
Earlier on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged the West not to hamper the delivery of the humanitarian aid and sharply criticized recent statements by officials in London, Washington and Berlin that the population in eastern Ukraine does not require humanitarian assistance, despite the worsening situation in the regions caught in armed clashes between Kiev-led forces and independence supporters.
