MOSCOW, August 20 (RIA Novosti) — An advance party of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) employees have already set out on the suggested route for the delivery of Russian humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
"An overall understanding on the readiness for the beginning of the truck convoy has been set. The frontal group of International Red Cross employees has already moved along the suggested route for [the humanitarian aid] delivery," the ministry said on its website.
The first 16 trucks of the Russian convoy carrying humanitarian aid to southeastern Ukraine is at the border checkpoint in the Russian town of Donetsk, where the drivers are receiving instructions from ICRC representatives. The rest of the 280-truck convoy remains near the town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky some 20 miles away.
It remains unclear when the trucks would start moving toward Ukraine, as earlier reports suggested the Red Cross had not received security guarantees for the convoy to safely drive through the conflict-torn Ukrainian regions to deliver the cargo.
In early August, amid the worsening humanitarian situation in Ukraine, Russia proposed to send an international humanitarian mission to eastern Ukraine with Russian aid under the auspices of the ICRC.
A convoy carrying about 2,000 tons of humanitarian aid including baby food, medication, grain, sugar and other basic necessities set off from the Moscow Region on August 12 heading towards Ukraine's conflict areas.
