MOSCOW, September 16 (RIA Novosti) - Kiev is demanding that Russia stops sending convoys with humanitarian aid to southeastern Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Evhen Perebyinis said Tuesday.
"We demand Russia stop provocations with the so-called humanitarian convoys," the official was quoted as saying by Ukraine's UNIAN information agency.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman also urged Moscow to "withdraw troops, which, together with terrorists, continue to carry out crimes on Ukrainian territory".
Ukraine and the West are accusing Russia of providing military aid to the pro-independence forces in southwestern Ukraine and even of direct military intervention. Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have repeatedly denied any involvement in the Ukrainian internal conflict.
According to the UN, the Kiev-led military operation against the pro-independence movement of Ukraine's South-East, launched in April, killed over 2,700 people. Both sides are currently adhering to a ceasefire. Amid the troubled humanitarian situation in the region, Moscow has sent two convoys carrying humanitarian aid to Eastern Ukraine. The first humanitarian convoy entered Ukraine late August, and the second one, consisting of around 200 trucks carrying cereals, sugar, tinned food, drinking water, medicines and warm clothes, arrived in the Eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk last weekend and returned to Russia the same day.
