Humanitarian disaster in Donbas is a consequence of non-fulfilment of the Minsk agreements

By Vestnik Kavkaza

The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic warned about the possible failure of a number of the Minsk agreements if Kiev fails to define the list of areas of Donbas that will be granted special status within three days. As Interfax reported yesterday, DPR envoy Dennis Pushilin said "three days are left before the expiration of the period for acceptance by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the list of areas of Donbas with a special political and economic status." "Of equal concern is the fact that so far they have not started the coordination of a sub-working group on the implementation of the Minsk Agreement. We have repeatedly stated that without this it is impossible to start the implementation of paragraphs 7 and 8 [providing for the formation of sub-groups on humanitarian and socio-economic relations], which daily deepens the humanitarian catastrophe in the Donbas," Pushilin said.

Speaking about the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council Committee on Rules and Organization of parliamentary activities, Sergey Mamedov, said that "without our convoys, the situation there would be really critical, especially in winter." In addition to Russia, the fund of Donetsk oligarch Rinat Akhmetov is also providing humanitarian aid to Donbas. However, recently the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine blocked the entry of 58 trucks to the territory of the DPR and the LPR. Earlier, the Akhmetov fund already appealed to the president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko asking for help delivering humanitarian aid to Donbas. According to Sergey Mamedov, "this column is smaller than the Russian one and usually consists of several vehicles. For some reasons unknown to us, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which monitor the other side of the restriction line, do not let all the column in, letting in mostly just one car."

There are problems on the Russian-Ukrainian border, because, according to Russian law, any load that exceeds fifty pounds is subject to customs fees and declaration. To recognize it as humanitarian cargo and evade customs duties it is necessary to collect a lot of documents. "This is probably correct, because otherwise it may cause a huge number of already criminal matters," Mamedov said.

Meanwhile, according to the senator, "we have a very large number of both individuals and organizations that since last summer have formed small columns themselves, some cars with a load ... We are now trying to somehow organize people trying to smuggle humanitarians load to Ukraine. The Union of Russian Rescuers is working actively, which has even officially received the documents confirming that their cargo is humanitarian. Now we are trying to gather cargo under their auspices, to avoid problems at customs," the senator said.

Assessing the situation in south-eastern Ukraine, Mamedov said: “Now it is a little better there, and we hope that the agreements reached in Minsk will be implemented. While this is the third truce, and we always brace ourselves for the flood of refugees we have after each of the truces, which increases, and then the war begins. God grant that this time will be different."