SOCHI, August 12 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Western media reports started showing the true picture of what is going on in southeastern Ukraine and thanked the journalists for their contribution to covering the events in the conflict-torn region.
“Western media has started, even if unwillingly, to cover the situation [in southeastern Ukraine] quite detailed, showing all the horrors that the civil population is facing there,” Lavrov told journalists.
The minister reminded that earlier Monday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs issued a report on the humanitarian situation in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
“It shows a very sad picture: thousands of killed and injured, no electricity, no drinking water, it is impossible to provide work of hospitals, retirement homes, other objects of social infrastructure,” Lavrov noted.
“So, although, it is late but even those who initially took a rather reserved stance in regards to the events, finally started telling the truth, thanks to the Russian journalists, who made a huge contribution in order for this truth to be finally heard from the newspaper pages, television screens, as well as from international organizations,” Russian top diplomat stated.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly stressed the need for urgent measures to prevent a humanitarian crisis in southeastern Ukraine and urged its Western partners to assist Moscow in its efforts to stop the bloodshed in the region.
Earlier on Tuesday, Lavrov said that Ukraine has notified the Russian Foreign Ministry that it was ready to receive humanitarian aid supplies to the population of violence-torn eastern regions of the country, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
A convoy of 280 trucks is expected to arrive at the Ukrainian border on Wednesday, carrying some 2,000 tons of relief aid contributed by Moscow and the Moscow Region.
Russia proposed sending humanitarian aid to Ukraine’s eastern regions under the auspice of the International Committee of the Red Cross last week.
