KIEV, August 19 (RIA Novosti) – A group of representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is on its way to the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk to organize the delivery of Russian humanitarian aid to the war-torn city, a spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council said Tuesday.
“A frontal group of the International Committee of the Red Cross has been sent to Luhansk to evaluate the situation and organize the delivery of the humanitarian cargo. Today the group, comprising three people, plans to arrive in Ukraine from the city of Donetsk in the Russian Federation’s Rostov Region, via the Donetsk-Izvarino crossing point,” Lysenko told reporters.
In light of the worsening humanitarian situation in Ukraine's eastern regions, Russia made a proposal to the UN Security Council in early August to send an international humanitarian mission with Russian aid to the troubled regions under the auspices of the ICRC.
On August 17, the first 16 of 280 trucks carrying Russian humanitarian aid arrived at a customs checkpoint on the Ukrainian border, with more expected to follow. The head of the ICRC delegation for Russia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, Pascal Cuttat, examined the trucks Sunday and said he was satisfied with the condition of the humanitarian cargo.
On Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it planned to seal the Russian trucks carrying humanitarian aid to Ukraine and take them under its jurisdiction only after both the Russian and Ukrainian customs authorities check all the vehicles.
