BRUSSELS - The Red Cross says it has no agreement to govern what will happen when Russian “aid” trucks arrive at Ukraine’s border. Andre Loersch, the Kiev-based spokesman for the Geneva-based relief body, told EUobserver on Tuesday (12 August) that “it was a surprise to us” when Russian leader Vladimir Putin announced on Monday that he was sending the humanitarian assistance convoy to Ukraine. “We were waiting for the Russian Federation to hand over a precise and detailed list of the humanitarian materials it intended to provide and we still haven’t got that”, he said. “We have at this stage no agreement for the hand-over of this humanitarian aid. The only information I have at this stage is from Russian press agencies”. Russian media reported earlier on Tuesday that 280 trucks had left Moscow for Ukraine carrying 2,000 tonnes of grain, sugar, baby food, medicine, sleeping bags, and electrical generators. Meanwhile, the office of Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko, who spoke with Red Cross chief Peter Maurer by phone on Monday, said in a statement that a new humanitarian effort will include “assistance provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United States, the EU, and Russia”. It added that the “aid [will] be distributed exclusively among the civilian population of the Lugansk region [in east Ukraine]”. The large convoy of Russian trucks comes after a warning by Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen there is a “high probability” that Russia could invade Ukraine under the auspices of an aid mission
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 07:38:39 +0000
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