In a telephone conversation with Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel on Friday, Russian Minister of Defense Sergey Shoygu expressed his country's deep concern about the increasing presence of US and Nato forces on Russia's western borders. Shoygu also underlined the need to secure a ceasefire in Eastern Ukraine and establish humanitarian corridors in order to deliver humanitarian aid to the region and evacuate civilians. The Russian minister also informed his US counterpart about Russia's plans to send humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
In the meantime the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that the Ukrainian authorities are preventing successful delivery of Russian humanitarian aid to Eastern Ukraine. According to the ministry, the Ukrainian side is preparing to sabotage the humanitarian convoy, which is now being checked at the Russian-Ukrainian border.
The humanitarian convoy left the settlement of Alabino in the Moscow suburbs on Tuesday. 280 white lorries are believed to be carrying 2 thousand tons of humanitarian aid - medicine, sugar, cereals, baby foods and sleeping bags. Till now it was not clear whether the Ukrainian authorities would allow the convoy to cross the border. At first the convoy was going to cross the border in the Kharkiv Region, but Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov prohibited the local authorities from letting the convoy enter Ukrainian territory and the column headed to Russia's Rostov Region, which borders Ukraine's Luhansk Region. On Friday morning the convoy started undergoing customs inspections.
Director of the Modern States Institute Alexey Martynov noted that "despite all the obstacles created by some western powers and international organizations, the convoy is heading to the south-eastern part of Ukraine."
"The very fact that Russia is trying to send humanitarian aid to the region, to launch a peaceful expansion to South-Eastern Ukraine, which is labeled as "intervention" by some, shows that Russia is paying special attention to the humanitarian catastrophe caused in the region by the Kyiv authorities," he said. "In fact, Russia demonstrates its commitment to the idea of a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Russia is not threatening the Ukrainian authorities with arms, ignoring the provocations of western powers and the Ukrainian authorities themselves. Kyiv is also going to send a humanitarian convoy to the south-eastern region of the country. I hope that in such a case, when the two powers send humanitarian aid to the region, the involved parties will put down their arms and stop the ongoing bloodshed. It will be Russia's merit. We are doing our best. War stops when humanitarian convoys are being sent," he said.
