MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The aid includes food, medicine and construction materials, according to the spokesperson.
"At 04:00 Moscow time [01:00 GMT] over 40 vehicles with humanitarian aid left the Donskoy rescue center of the Emergencies Ministry," a ministry spokesperson said early on Thursday, adding that the convoy is carrying "over 400 tonnes [metric tons] of humanitarian cargo" for residents of the Lugansk region of Donbass.
Ukraine’s southeast has been severely affected by Kiev’s special military operation, launched in the southeastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions in April 2014. The operation was a response to local residents' refusal to recognize the new coup-installed government in the country.
Earlier this week, the principal deputy chief monitor of the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Ukraine told Sputnik that the humanitarian situation in Donbass remains challenged amid hindered access for aid convoys.
Overall, Russia has delivered more than 62,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Ukraine’s southeast since August 2014. Kiev considers these humanitarian aid deliveries to be illegal.
According to UN data, more than 9,300 people have been killed and more than 21,500 have been injured since the beginning of the internal conflict in Ukraine. Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes.
