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Aid convoy to Ukraine faces disruption, may be attacked - Russia

                                                   

Trucks from a Russian humanitarian convoy arrive to park on a field outside the town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky in the Rostov region, some 30kms from the Russian-Ukrainian border, Russia, on August 14, 2014. (AFP Photo / Andrey Kronberg)



Moscow has information that the convoy delivering humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine may be attacked by Kiev’s forces, with the “punitive” Aidar Battalion planning to mine the road that the vehicles will use, the Russian Foreign Ministry says.



On Friday, Moscow accused Ukraine of attempting to disrupt the humanitarian aid convoy now that the preparations for its delivery have reached their final stages and all key issues have been agreed upon.



“We draw attention to the sharp intensification of military actions by Ukrainian forces with the obvious goal to block the route, agreed upon with Kiev, of the humanitarian convoy from the Russia-Ukraine border to Lugansk,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.



In Moscow’s view, all this gives the impression that there are people both in Ukraine and abroad who are willing to disrupt the humanitarian mission, even “at the cost of new casualties and destruction.”

“Those nurturing such criminal plans are taking huge responsibility for their consequences,” the ministry said.



Russia sent a convoy of 280 trucks carrying humanitarian aid – such as medical supplies, food, including baby food, sleeping bags and other basic necessities – to conflict-torn southeastern Ukraine on Tuesday. The convoy is currently stuck near the Ukrainian border, and is awaiting final approval from Kiev before moving forward
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Russia also reiterated that it would carry out the agreements reached with the Ukrainian government and the ICRC on delivering aid to Donbass residents as quickly as possible and in full. 

“We are doing everything we can to provide security for this mission,” the Foreign Ministry said. Russia urged both the Kiev military and the east Ukrainian militia to immediately announce a ceasefire to allow the humanitarian convoy to reach Donbass residents. 

Moscow said it hopes its efforts will receive support from the ICRC, the OSCE and the UN.

Humanitarian aid to the residents of the Ukrainian regions devastated by the ongoing fighting was also discussed on Friday in a phone conversation between the Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers. They stressed that international organizations should take a “more efficient and responsible” part in the fulfillment of the humanitarian mission, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. 

An immediate ceasefire is necessary to create humanitarian corridors for aid delivery and the evacuation of civilians from conflict zones in eastern Ukraine, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said, discussing the situation on the phone with his American counterpart, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. 

The Russian aid convoy’s path to Ukraine has been rather thorny, as Kiev has kept debating whether it will accept it or not, and has feared it could be a “Trojan Horse.”

Aid convoy may pave way for ceasefire – Finland

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, who met Friday with Vladimir Putin, said he hoped that the Russian aid convoy would pave the way for a ceasefire between the Kiev government and self-defense militias in eastern Ukraine. 

Speaking after talks with the Russian president in Sochi, Niinisto said an agreement had been reached between Ukraine, Russia and the International Committee of the Red Cross to let the aid convoy enter eastern Ukraine, Reuters reported. 

“We hope that this news is a testimony to the potential strengthening of mutual trust and we very much need this mutual trust to take the next step... That is for a ceasefire,” he said.

It was not immediately clear, however, whether the Finnish president, who spoke through a translator, was simply referring to an agreement between Moscow and Kiev that the mission could cross into Ukraine once it had been inspected, cleared and handed over to Red Cross supervision. 

The ICRC in Geneva said it was not aware that any final agreement had been reached.

In a statement released earlier Friday, the organization said that Russia and Ukraine were finalizing practical details. 

“As and when agreement is reached, we plan to deliver this humanitarian aid to people affected by conflict in eastern Ukraine, health facilities and other welfare organizations,” Laurent Corbaz, ICRC head of operations for Europe and Central Asia, said in a statement. “People are struggling to cope with limited access to basic services such as water and electricity, so speed is of the essence.” 

In addition to a five-person ICRC team already present in the vicinity of the Russian convoy parked in the Rostov region, 15 more staff were also sent to the region. Another team was deployed to Starobelsk, in the Lugansk region, where a Ukrainian aid convoy of around 50 trucks arrived Friday, according to the ICRC statement. 

The ICRC said they needed “assurances from all parties to the conflict that our staff will be allowed to perform their tasks safely and with due respect for our humanitarian principles.”

“Given the complex logistics and security challenges involved, this aid operation will take some time and we call on the authorities of both countries to do all they can to resolve outstanding issues quickly,” Corbaz said.

Russian Defense Ministry denies reports military column crossed into Ukraine

The border check point "Izvarino", Lugansk Region. (RIA Novosti / Alexandr Geyfman)

Russia’s Defense Ministry has denied Kiev’s report that it “destroyed the Russian military column” which allegedly crossed into Ukraine, saying that no such column ever existed.

“No Russian military column that allegedly crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border at night or during the day ever existed,” said Major General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry. 

The best scenario would be, the official said, if it was a “phantom” that the Ukrainian military destroyed “rather than refugees or their own servicemen.”

“Such statements – based on fantasies, or journalists’ assumptions, to be precise – should not be subject for a serious discussion by top officials of any country,” Konashenkov said.

The Defense Ministry’s comment comes shortly after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that his country’s artillery had destroyed a “significant” number of Russian military vehicles that allegedly crossed into Ukraine on Thursday night. Reports of the alleged incident had appeared in several Ukrainian and Western media outlets. 

Earlier on Friday Russia’s Security Service (FSB) also denied the reports. Border guards have been deployed to provide security near the frontier, but they operate only on the Russian side, the FSB said. 

The mobile military teams “operate strictly within the territory of the Russian Federation,” a spokesperson for the FSB Border Guard Service in Rostov region told RT on Friday. 

Russia has stepped up security measures on its border with Ukraine as local residents are under constant threat because of “regular cross-border shelling” and an increased number of “mass border crossings” by the Ukrainian military, he explained. For that reason, FSB mobile border guards’ teams have been created. 

Refugees at the Izvarino checkpoint in the Lugansk Region. (RIA Novosti / Valeriy Melnikov)

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“When residents report about cross-border shooting and fighting in the frontier zone, these teams are immediately deployed to such areas to provide the safety of the Russian state border and Russian citizens, and also to prevent armed people from crossing into the territory of the Russian Federation,” Sinitsyn said. 

Although the White House could not confirm or deny the reports and is still trying to get more information, spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden warned that Russia "has no right to do it."

Earlier, several foreign news agencies caused quite a stir, reporting that a convoy of Russian military vehicles had crossed into Ukraine overnight. 

The reports triggered criticism from NATO and some European states. 

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen referred to the alleged incident as to “a Russian incursion” that they “saw.”

“Last night we saw a Russian incursion, a crossing of the Ukrainian border,” he said Friday, adding that “it is a clear demonstration of continued Russian involvement in the destabilization of eastern Ukraine.” 

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he was “very alarmed by the reports.”

“Of course the humanitarian convoy itself is a separate issue, but if there any Russian military personnel or vehicles in eastern Ukraine they need to be withdrawn immediately or the consequences could be very serious,” he told reporters in Brussels, where European Union foreign ministers had gathered for an emergency meeting to discuss crises in Ukraine and Iraq. 

In an article published by The Guardian, reporter Shaun Walker said he “saw a column of 23 armored personnel carriers, supported by fuel trucks and other logistics vehicles with official Russian military plates, traveling [toward] the border near the Russian town of Donetsk.” 

Late on Thursday the convoy “crossed into Ukrainian territory,” he said. However, no photographic or video evidence of the incident was presented either in his article or in his Twitter feed. The photograph published with the text was taken on Russian territory.

The Telegraph also reported that “at least 23” Russian vehicles had crossed into Ukraine. The report is accompanied by a video also filmed on Russian territory. 

It’s a “big question” why two foreign journalists in a war zone “seeing something that should be a very dramatic story haven’t got a mobile phone to take pictures of this,” Neil Clark, journalist and broadcaster, noted to RT.