MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia’s 38th humanitarian aid convoy for residents of Ukraine’s troubled southeast (Donbass) is heading for the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, a spokesperson of the Russian Emergencies Ministry said early on Thursday.
"At 04:00 Moscow time [01:00 GMT] the Russian Emergencies Ministry convoy with humanitarian aid for Donbass left the [Russian] Donskoy rescue center in the Rostov region," the spokesperson told journalists.
At the border with Ukraine the convoy vehicles will split into two groups, one of which will head to the southeastern region of Donetsk, while the other one will go to Lugansk.
The convoy consists of over 100 vehicles that are carrying over 1,200 metric tons of aid including food, such as flour, tea and grains, as well as school and university textbooks for Donbass students.
Overall, Russia has sent more than 45,000 metric tons of humanitarian aid to Donbass since August 2014.
In November 2014, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered to impose an economic blockade on Donbass, withdrawing all state-funded health, educational and social protections from the region.
Earlier this week, the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that Kiev must avoid any actions that could lead to the deterioration of the humanitarian crisis in Donbass, stressing that the bombardment by Kiev-led forces and the restrictions on cargo transit and water supplies across the line of contact between the conflicting sides were the main triggers of the humanitarian crisis.
