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‘Inhuman’: DPR blames Ukraine’s forces for hampering humanitarian aid delivery to Donbass

According to the Foreign Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Kiev had been shelling a local settlement, where the humanitarian convoy was to cross into the republic, for two consecutive days

DONETSK, February 25./TASS/. Kiev’s troops are blocking the delivery of humanitarian cargoes from the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross by means of targeted shelling of Donbass, the Foreign Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said on Thursday.

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"Being informed about the planned transits of humanitarian convoys of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the ICRC to the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics (DPR and LPR), the Ukrainian side has staged a thoroughly planned and targeted inhuman action," the ministry said in a report posted on its Telegram channel. It specified that for two successive days, Kiev had been shelling "the settlement of Yelenovka, where a humanitarian convoy was to cross into the republic via the Yelenovka-Novotroitskoye checkpoint."

Donbass emphasized that Kiev’s troops were using heavy weaponry, saying that a civilian had been wounded and infrastructure facilities had been damaged as a result. In view of this instigating activity by Kiev, the republic has appealed to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission. "We see the blocking of humanitarian deliveries by the Ukrainian side as cynical and going against all international rules and principles," the ministry stressed.

It referred to the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group, Ambassador Heidi Grau, "with an appeal to sway the Ukrainian side into ending the antihuman provocations."

The ministry emphasized that through its activity, Kiev was intentionally escalating tensions in the conflict zone and putting pressure on the LPR in a key issue of coordinating the work of checkpoints along the contact line near the settlements of Shchastye and Zolotoye, whose discussion has been carried out for almost two years within the framework of the Contact Group for the settlement in Donbass.

Ukrainian troops once again shelled Yelenovka, DPR, on Thursday morning, the Joint Control and Coordination Commission (JCCC) reported.

Yelenovka is under attack for the second day in a row. A house and a power line were damaged on Wednesday. Local authorities urged residents to relocate for their safety. The Ukrainian forces also shelled the settlement of Alexandrovka on Wednesday.

DPR leader Denis Pushilin said that in the wake of Wednesday’s shelling, the Republic must brace for any developments.

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