MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia's 25th humanitarian aid convoy has departed for southeastern Ukraine (Donbass), carrying food and medicine for the residents of the crisis-hit region, as well as presents for World War II veterans in Donetsk and Luhansk, a representative of the Russian Emergencies Ministry told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
"It [convoy] left the Emergencies Ministry's Donskoy rescue center in the Rostov Region at 04:00 Moscow time [01:00 GMT] and is headed for the state border," Oleg Voronov, deputy chief of the crisis management center with the Russian Emergencies Ministry, said.
According to Voronov, the Russian aid includes medicine, clothes and food, as well as gifts for WWII veterans living in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which are being delivered ahead of Victory Day, celebrated on May 9 and marking the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union.
Donbass residents are on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe because of the military operation that Kiev launched in southeastern Ukraine in April, 2014, to suppress local independence supporters who refused to recognize the new coup-imposed Ukrainian government.
In addition, the region has been suffering from an economic blockade imposed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in November, 2014, which led to all state-funded health, educational and social protection organizations having been withdrawn from Donbass.
Russia has delivered over 31,000 metric tons of aid to the people of Donetsk and Lugansk since August, 2014. It plans to send its next, 26th humanitarian aid convoy to Donbass on May 14.
