GENEVA, May 16. /TASS/. A Swiss 15-truck convoy with humanitarian aid has delivered 300 tonnes of water treatment chemicals to the city of Donetsk, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said in Bern.
"This is the first humanitarian convoy of its size to have crossed the contact line between the government-controlled area and that under the control of non-government forces since the armed conflict began in the region," the statement says noting that the chemicals, mainly aluminium sulphate, would be pumped into the water facilities supplying 3.5 million residents with drinking water.
Switzerland organised the transportation as "the drinking water supply in the conflict zone no longer meets health standards owing to a lack of disinfection capacities, resulting in the spread of diseases like hepatitis A."
The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said that "It is also the first time that the government in Kyiv has collaborated with a third country in carrying out a major relief operation both in the area controlled by the government and the area under the control of non-government forces [militias of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics - eds. TASS].".