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Moscow denies charges it sends ‘illegal’ humanitarian cargoes to Ukraine — OSCE envoy

Russia has also disbursed $1 million to finance the activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the south-east of Ukraine
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid for residents of the eastern Ukraine Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid for residents of the eastern Ukraine
© Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/. Russia has disbursed $1 million to finance the activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the south-east of Ukraine. “Accusing Russia of sending only ‘illegal’ humanitarian convoys to Ukraine and not giving a dime to the ICRC in Ukraine — and such claims have been made in this hall — is absolutely groundless,” Russia’s Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Andrey Kelin said at a meeting of the organization’s permanent council for Ukraine on Friday.

Kelin said that “the gravest humanitarian situation in the east of Ukraine today is evident to all.”

“However, the central authorities have taken a very strange attitude to people who remain holders of Ukrainian passports and reside in the Ukrainian territory,” the diplomat said. “They are blocking the delivery humanitarian cargoes and foods to the region. The so-called territorial defense battalion (No. 12) near Luhansk does not let trucks carrying food supplies enter the city.” Kiev is hindering humanitarian supplies from Russia in every possible way.

“The International Red Cross may well have participated in the distribution of Russian humanitarian aid in the affected regions, but it cannot do so without Kiev’s permission,” Kelin said.