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Russia asks UN to influence Kiev to make it help deliver humanitarian aid

Russian humanitarian convoy will reach the Ukrainian border on October 30

UNITED NATIONS, October 30. /TASS/. Russia has asked the United Nations to exert influence on Kiev to make it assist in delivering Russian humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine, Russian Permanent Representative at the United Nations Vitaly Churkin told TASS on Thursday.

He said a letter to this effect from Russian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov had been handed over to Valerie Amos, the United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, on Wednesday.

“We have handed over to Valerie Amos a letter from our emergencies minister where he calls on her to exert influence on the Kiev authorities to make them stop putting obstacles and help deliver the humanitarian aid,” the Russian diplomat said.

He said it was not important for the Russian side to receive an answer to that letter but what mattered most was to see real steps from the United Nations. “We do want this letter to be answered but the main thing is not their answering the letter but their making real steps to help deliver the humanitarian cargoes,” Churkin said.

On October 28, Russia’ emergencies ministry dispatched a fourth humanitarian convoy to the war-hit Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Deputy Emergencies Minister Vladimir Artamonov said earlier that this convoy was to deliver building materials to restore the damaged infrastructure in eastern Ukraine.

At a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, deputy director of the Ukrainian foreign ministry’s international organizations department, Yuri Vitrenko, said that Kiev would consider Russia’s sending another humanitarian convoy to Ukraine’s eastern regions as a “violation of the United Nations Charter.