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Russian Red Cross Poised to Help Distribute Aid in East Ukraine Pending Permit

© RIA Novosti . Igor Ermanchenkov / Go to the mediabankA man is unloading a truck with Russian humanitarian aid for Ukraine's southeast in Luhansk
A man is unloading a truck with Russian humanitarian aid for Ukraine's southeast in Luhansk - Sputnik International
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Russia’s Red Cross personnel are awaiting permit from their Ukrainian colleagues to assist in distributing relief aid to Luhansk residents, the organization’s head told RIA Novosti Saturday.

MOSCOW, August 23 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Red Cross personnel are awaiting permission from their Ukrainian colleagues to assist in distributing relief aid to Luhansk residents, the organization’s head told RIA Novosti Saturday.

Raisa Lukutsova added that Ukrainian Red Cross was considering inviting Russian volunteers to distribute supplies brought in overnight by a Russian humanitarian convoy.

She said Moscow and the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) were in talks on the relief organization’s help in distributing the aid around the besieged city of Luhansk.

“I know about it [the talks], but there has been no result so far. I’ve just talked to the president of the Ukrainian Red Cross, [he said] they are holding consultations and aren’t ready to give an answer yet. We cannot enter the country without permission from Ukraine’s Red Cross,” Lukutsova said.

A source in the know told RIA Novosti earlier the ICRC on Friday insisted that the Russian humanitarian aid convoy headed for Luhansk should take what he described as a dangerous route close to the village of Novosvitlovka, a stronghold of Ukraine’s National Guards in the country’s southeast. Lukutsova said she could not confirm this report.

The first group of trucks that delivered Russian humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine, returned to Russian territory on Saturday, and said to be proceeding to the city of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, a Russian city on Ukraine’s eastern borders where the convoy had been stranded for a week waiting for Kiev’s permission to cross over.

The humanitarian aid mission caused anger in Kiev and among its Western allies, who branded it as a fragrant violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty, while Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin on Friday accused the West of distorting the truth saying Kiev had granted its permit back on August 12.

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