KIEV, August 20 /ITAR-TASS/. Four trucks with Russian aid for south-eastern regions of Ukraine have entered the transit zone at a checkpoint in the neighbouring Rostov region of Russia but Ukrainian border guards and customs officials will most likely let then in only on Thursday, an Interior Ministry adviser, Andrei Lysenko, said on Wednesday.

“Four trucks have entered the transit zone at the Donetsk checkpoint in the Rostov Region. But only lists of International Committee of the Red Cross officials have been given to our border guards and customs officers. So they will most likely be able to start working only tomorrow morning as there are no documents concerning the contents of the humanitarian cargo,” he told Ukraine’s 112 television channel.

Earlier in the day, a Russian border guard service official said that Ukrainian border guards had failed to show up at the checkpoint on the border with Russia to examine the humanitarian aid.

“Ukrainian border guards did not show up on time and remain inaccessible,” he said.

The first 16 trucks with Russian humanitarian aid entered the Donetsk-Izvarino checkpoint in the southern Rostov region and were reported to be undergoing customs clearance and border control procedures. A special scanner is used in the process.

The border crossing point, where the trucks are being examined and customs cleared, is about 100 metres away from the place where they were standing.

On August 12, about 270 trucks with almost 2,000 tonnes of relief supplies left the Moscow region, heading for the Ukrainian border. It arrived in the southern Rostov region bordering Ukraine on August 14 and has been there since then.

Ukraine and Russia have agreed the procedure for examining and customs clearing the cargo: each truck will be accompanied by a Red Cross official, and Russian and Ukrainian customs officers will examine and seal the trucks before they cross the border.