MOSCOW, August 24 (RIA Novosti) - US Vice President Joe Biden called Russia's humanitarian aid delivery to Ukraine's southeast a "blatant provocation and disregard of Ukraine’s sovereignty" in a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, the White House said in a statement Saturday.
"President Poroshenko informed the Vice President that most of the Russian military trucks that had unlawfully entered Ukraine the previous day had returned to Russia, and the Vice President commended Ukraine’s restraint in the face of Russia’s blatant provocation and disregard of Ukraine’s sovereignty," said in the readout of the call.
Biden also noted Russia’s "continued isolation in the UN Security Council." He promised that the United States would continue to collaborate with the G-7 nations in their response to Russia’s "destabilizing actions in Ukraine."
As the situation in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions worsened earlier this month, Russia proposed to send a humanitarian convoy under the auspices of the Red Cross to eastern Ukraine. The convoy comprised 227 trucks carrying about 2,000 tons of humanitarian aid that included baby food, medicine, grain, sugar, sleeping bags, generators and other essentials.
On August 14, the trucks with Russian humanitarian aid arrived at the border, but Ukraine began customs clearance only a week later.
On Friday, several dozen of Russian trucks carrying humanitarian aid to violence-torn Luhansk and Donetsk regions crossed the border with Ukraine allegedly without the clearance by Ukrainian customs officials or the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) escort. The trucks reached the destination, where they unloaded the same day. Most of the convoy returned to Russia Friday, while some of the trucks arrived Saturday.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow had received a formal agreement from Kiev authorities for the passage of the humanitarian convoy through the Ukrainian border on August 12.
