KIEV, October 29. /TASS/. The Russian Embassy in Kiev on Wednesday informed Ukraine about the regular batch of Russian humanitarian aid to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, eastern Ukraine.

“The Russian Embassy sent a note to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to inform it about a variety of goods and the amount of cargo,” the Russian Embassy’s press service told TASS.

The Emergencies Ministry’s humanitarian convoy for residents of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions left the Moscow region on Tuesday, October 28. The convoy is currently in the Voronezh region. It includes 100 trucks with at least 1,000 tonnes of cargoes - construction materials, foodstuffs, medicines and equipment to prepare for the winter.

This is the fourth Russian humanitarian aid convoy for eastern Ukraine. First three convoys supplied a total 6,000 tons of cargoes, particularly foodstuffs, including cereals and canned food, medicines, power generators, warm clothes and bottled drinking water to Donetsk and Luhansk.

Russian relief aid convoys are planned to deliver up to 3,000 tons of humanitarian aid to Luhansk and Donetsk regions within a week, Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations Vladimir Stepanov said earlier.

 

Humanitarian crisis in eastern Ukraine

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday marked an improvement of the humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine, where refugees are returning and artillery fire has become less intense. The number of citizens coming back to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions has exceeded the number of those who are leaving the areas.

The humanitarian situation in the region is still of concern. On Wednesday, Russia's Foreign Ministry said Russia is receiving information about critical social and economic situation in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which are on brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.

“The fighting violated functioning of the infrastructure facilities of settlements. Residents face severe shortage of foodstuffs, drinking water, medications and basic necessities. The majority of healthcare and education institutions have been destroyed. Public utilities and energy services do not work. Amid the coming winter there is no possibility of organizing the heating season,” the ministry said.