All of the preconditions that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had set earlier for its involvement in the delivery of Russian humanitarian aid to south-eastern Ukraine have been observed, Victoria Zotikova, a spokesperson for the ICRC delegation to Russia, Belarus, and Moldova, told Interfax.
“We had certain preconditions, of which we have talked about repeatedly. We believe there are no obstacles for us at the present time, and the preconditions that we set earlier have been observed,” she said.
“We are ready, if nothing unexpected happens in security terms,” she added.
Zotikova pointed out also that an ICRC advance party had traveled along the route to be used for delivering Russian humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine on Aug. 20.
“Our advance party traveled to eastern Ukraine, checked the conditions and the state of the road, assessed the general situation, established contacts for preparing the convoy’s passage, and shared its impressions of the situation in Luhansk with us,” she said.
“It’s true that there is no water and electricity there, and people are afraid to go out. They said also that shelling of the city was continuing,” Zotikova said.
“The local Luhansk authorities have conducted some preparations for receiving the convoy; in particular, they have determined the places where the aid would be distributed,” she said.
The ICRC had said earlier that it would be ready to conduct the humanitarian operation as soon as all parties had provided security guarantees for its workers escorting the convoy.
