“More than 170 vehicles are carrying a total of more than 1,800 tons of humanitarian aid to the people of Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” Oleg Voronov, deputy chief of the crisis management center with the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, said.
According to Voronov, the humanitarian cargo includes food, medicines, construction materials and student books.
The convoy will divide in two parts. The first part of the convoy, comprised of more than 90 vehicles, will carry over 900 tons of cargo to Donetsk. The second part of more than 80 trucks will deliver the same amount of humanitarian aid to Luhansk.
The two regions have been suffering from a severe humanitarian crisis as a result of a military operation launched by Kiev to suppress local independence supporters in mid-April, 2014.
Since August, Russia has sent to the region a total of 13 humanitarian convoys with more than 18,000 tons of aid. The 13th convoy has returned to Russia on February 9 after bringing over 1,100 tons of aid to Donetsk and Luhansk.
