MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia is sending Thursday yet another convoy to Ukraine's crisis-torn Donbass to help local residents survive through a humanitarian crisis, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said.
"The aid includes mostly food: meat, fish, canned milk and wheat flour. To date, all the vehicles have been loaded, they have been tested and proven to be technically sound," the ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
The convoy of more than 100 vehicles is carrying over 1000 metric tons of humanitarian aid, the statement said.
"At 04:00 a.m. [1:00 GMT] more than 100 vehicles left the Donskoy rescue center of Emergency Situations Ministry in the Rostov Region, and are now moving to the state border," the representative of the center told reporters.
The drivers of the convoy vehicles knew the route perfectly, but nevertheless, they had been instructed on driving in emergency situations, the crisis management center added.
The latest aid delivery is the 27th in a series of convoys sent by Russia to provide relief to the self-proclaimed republics of Lugansk and Donetsk.
In April 2014, an armed conflict broke out in Donbass as Kiev launched a military operation against the region's independence supporters who were unhappy with the country's coup.
Amid the ongoing conflict, Donbass residents are on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.
The region has been also suffering from an economic blockade imposed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in November, 2014, which led to all state-funded health, educational and social support being withdrawn from Donbass.
Overall, Russia has delivered over 34,000 metric tons of aid to the people of Donetsk and Lugansk since August, 2014.
In March, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Russian humanitarian convoys remained the only source of survival for the residents of Donbass.
