KIEV, August 15 (RIA Novosti) -Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) began accepting humanitarian aid for Ukraine in the city of Starobelsk, in the Luhansk region, Kiev’s commissioner for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine said Friday.
“One-third of the trucks are already unloaded. The Red Cross is beginning to accept the cargo consistent with its manifest and fulfill its aid transfer schedule,” Irina Gerashchenko wrote on her Facebook page.
As Gerashchenko announced earlier, 75 vehicles carrying 800 tons of humanitarian aid left Kiev, Kharkiv and Dnepropetrovsk for Luhansk Region on Thursday morning.
On Tuesday, a convoy of 280 Kamaz trucks carrying Russian humanitarian aid headed to southeastern Ukraine. On Wednesday, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said Ukraine refused the convoy passage via Kharkiv Region. As of Friday morning, the Russian aid was being processed by Ukraine’s State Border Control at a Donetsk border crossing.
The Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk are currently facing a humanitarian crisis, as a result of Kiev’s ongoing military operation in the country’s southeast. Moscow has repeatedly urged the Ukrainian government to put an end to the conflict.
