MOSCOW, August 24 (RIA Novosti) - UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos in her interview with the RT channel warned against politicizing the situation around the Russian humanitarian convoy that delivered aid to Luhansk.
Humanitarian aid delivery has to be independent and neutral and must focus on bringing the most necessary things to those in need of help, Amos said, adding she regretted the fact that the situation around the Russian convoy had been politicized and hoped that would not repeat.
As the situation in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions worsened earlier this month, Russia proposed to send a humanitarian convoy under the auspices of the Red Cross to eastern Ukraine. The convoy comprised 227 trucks carrying about 2,000 tons of humanitarian aid that included baby food, medicine, grain, sugar, sleeping bags, generators and other essentials.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) refused to participate in the humanitarian mission due to security concerns.
On August 14, the trucks with Russian humanitarian aid arrived at the border, but Ukraine began customs clearance a week later.
On Friday, several dozen of Russian trucks crossed the border with Ukraine allegedly without the clearance by Ukrainian customs officials. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow had received a formal agreement from Kiev authorities for the passage of the humanitarian convoy through the Ukrainian border on August 12.
On Saturday, Russia’s Deputy Emergency Minister Eduard Chizhikov said that all 227 vehicles were searched by representatives of the customs and border control and returned to Russia empty. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) later confirmed the return of the trucks.
