LUHANSK/DONETSK - Two Russian Emergency Situations Ministry automobile convoys carrying humanitarian aid for Donbas residents have arrived in Luhansk and Donetsk on Jan. 31, an Interfax correspondent reports.
It was reported earlier that two humanitarian convoys had crossed the
Russian-Ukrainian border after the cargo had passed customs clearance
formalities on the morning of Jan. 31.
After crossing the border, one of the two convoys numbering over 80
trucks headed for Donetsk and the other for Luhansk. For the first time
ever, OSCE monitors accompanied the convoys once they entered Ukrainian
territory, Alexander Lekomtsev, the chief of the Russian Emergency
Situations Ministry’s Noginsk rescue center, told Interfax.
The customs clearance procedures took 1.5 hours, and Ukrainian
customs officers, in whose presence the procedures were conducted, “had
no objections about [the cargo’s contents],” Lekomtsev said.
“OSCE mission members for the first time accompanied [the convoy]
from the checkpoint to the place where it was unloaded,” Lekomtsev said.
The OSCE monitors also observed the unloading process in Donetsk, he
said.
Each convoy carried more than 750 tonnes of humanitarian cargo,
including food, medicines, construction materials, and essential goods.
This is the 12th Russian Emergency Situations Ministry humanitarian
convoy for Donbas. The previous convoys have delivered more than 14,800
tonnes of humanitarian aid to Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.
