Aid convoy drives back into Russia, Merkel visits Kiev
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HUNDREDS of trucks from a bitterly disputed Russian aid convoy to rebel-held eastern Ukraine rolled back across the border into Russia yesterday.
A reporter counted 225 of the white tarp-covered trucks as they drove from Ukraine into a Russian border town called Donetsk, which bears the same name as the largest rebel-held city in Ukraine. A second reporter on the Ukrainian side of the border was able to look inside about 40 of the trucks and confirmed they were empty.
A driver who declined to give his name said the rest of the 260-truck convoy was expected to return within hours to Russia. The state news agency RIA Novosti cited the Russian customs service as saying the trucks were moving in six groups.
The trucks crossed into Ukraine on Friday, bound for Luhansk, another rebel-held city in eastern Ukraine that has been hard-hit by weeks of fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia rebels.
The Ukrainian government and Western countries denounced the move as a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and accused Russia of using the convoy to smuggle supplies and reinforcements to separatist fighters.
Russia said the trucks carried only food, water, generators and sleeping bags. When some of them were inspected by reporters a few days earlier, some of those items were visible in the cargo.
UN charges denied
In a separate development, NATO said it has evidence that Russian troops are operating inside Ukraine and launching artillery attacks from the country.
At the United Nations in New York, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin rejected the accusation. Russia has steadfastly denied supporting and arming the rebels.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has advocated a measured European Union response to Russia’s aggressive policies in Ukraine, yesterday arrived in Kiev to meet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
In brief remarks at the start of their talks, the German leader said she came to Kiev “in a different time, which is focused on the unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
“I hope that we will be able to discuss bilateral problems and support from Germany as well as the path toward peace, which must be found,” she said.
It was unclear yesterday what the Russian convoy had actually delivered. Unloading hundreds of trucks in less than a day in a war-torn region is a major task.
The truck’s entry caused tensions to spike. They had been on the Russian side of the border for nearly two weeks as Ukraine refused permission for entry and the Red Cross sought security guarantees from all sides.
Russia sent the trucks in on Friday, saying it had lost patience and Luhansk was on the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe. Ukraine condemned it as a “direct invasion.”
In the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, residents reported artillery strikes throughout Friday night and yesterday morning. The mayor’s office said three people had been killed.
Ukraine has retaken control of much of its eastern territory bordering Russia, but fighting for Donetsk and Luhansk persists.
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