MOSCOW, August 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo held a phone conversation Thursday and discussed the practical steps that should be taken to provide crisis-torn eastern regions of Ukraine with humanitarian aid, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.
“The sides discussed practical aspects of the initiative aimed at the expedient delivery of humanitarian aid to the population of eastern Ukraine, suffering as a result of armed hostilities,” the ministry said in a statement.
According to the statement, Lavrov and Klimkin agreed that both Kiev-led forces and armed militia in the self-proclaimed Donets and Luhansk republics should take the responsibility for providing reliable security for the humanitarian mission.
Russia sent a convoy of 280 white Kamaz trucks carrying humanitarian aid to southeastern Ukraine. The convoy is carrying medical supplies, food, baby food, sleeping bags and other basic necessities.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the convoy is currently in Russia’s southern Rostov region.
“We've made initial contact with Russia-led aid convoy, Rostov region, Russia. Many practical details to be clarified,” ICRC tweeted Thursday.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that «Ukraine may accept any type of humanitarian aid exclusively within the framework of international law and exclusively from the Red Cross."
At the same time, the country’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said that Ukraine would not allow a Russian convoy of humanitarian aid to pass through the eastern Kharkiv Region.
US State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said late Tuesday that Kiev and Washington would agree to Russia’s humanitarian aid delivery if Moscow accepts the Ukrainian government’s conditions.
Earlier, Russia officially addressed UN humanitarian agencies, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) with a call to organize an international humanitarian mission to Ukraine. Last week, Russia urged the UN Security Council to send a mission with Russian humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine under the auspices of the ICRC and accompanied by its representatives.
The ICRC backed the proposal, and on August 11, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that Russia had reached an agreement with Kiev and the Red Cross on sending a humanitarian mission to eastern Ukraine, expressing hope that the West will not impede its delivery.
