Ukraine announced on Aug. 12 that it will not allow Russia to escort a humanitarian aid convoy currently on its way to the Ukrainian border across Ukrainian territory.
“The Red Cross is responsible and is coordinating the delivery of humanitarian aid. As it stands, the contents should be reloaded onto trucks rented by the Red Cross, and we will not allow Russian emergency services or military to escort it,” said Valery Chaly, deputy head of the Presidential Administration in a press conference today.
Chaly stated that the aid must be brought into Ukraine via a Ukrainian-controlled border crossing. Kremlin-backed insurgents still control border crossings in the east of the country, but Ukraine has said any crossing would be a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and international law.
Chaly expected the aid to be brought to Ukraine via the northeastern Kharkiv Oblast, which has been unaffected by fighting. He also said Ukraine had yet to receive an inventory detailing the contents of the aid delivery.
An announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration on Aug. 11 that Russia was sending a humanitarian convoy to Ukraine led to widespread media speculation about what the convoy would entail and whether it was supported by Kiev or sent in unilaterally.
Humanitarian issues in separatist—held eastern Ukraine have been receiving increasing international focus in recent weeks as fighting has intensified. On Aug. 5, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency session on the humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine.
Western countries, however, have been critical that Russian-led humanitarian missions may be a pretext for a full-blown military invasion of Ukraine. NATO has warned that such an invasion is likely and the government has said that as many as 45,000 Russian troops remain massed near Ukraine’s eastern borders along with a wealth of military equipment. The New York Times, citing Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko, said that the Russian troops are supported by 160 tanks, 1,360 armored vehicles, 390 artillery systems, 150 truck-mounted ground-to-ground rocket launchers, 192 fighter jets and 137 helicopters.
“Unilateral intervention by Russia into Ukrainian territory, including one under the guise of providing humanitarian aid, would be completely unacceptable and deeply alarming. And it would be viewed as an invasion of Ukraine,” said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, at the Security Council session.
Those sentiments were echoed again today in a separate press conference by Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Danylo Lubkivsky. “You don’t need tanks and artillery to bring food and medicine for civilians,” Lubkivsky said.
The convoy which left Moscow this morning is being coordinated by the UN and International Commission of the Red Cross. Ukrainian officials say that they have been working with those organizations to coordinate the aid delivery, but not with Russia directly.
Once a checkpoint is agreed upon for transferring the aid it will also have to be decided how it will be transferred to the separatist controlled areas that need it. Separatist leaders have so far not been involved in negotiations concerning the aid delivery or its handover.
Kyiv Post staff writer Ian Bateson can be reached at [email protected].
