Posted: Monday, August 11, 2014 11:26 pm
Associated Press |
DONETSK, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces on Monday zeroed in on rebel strongholds as the government welcomed an international humanitarian relief mission into the rebellious east involving Russia, the United States and the European Union.
The mission will be conducted under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The organization said in a statement it is ready to facilitate the operation with the involvement of all sides concerned following a Russian initiative to provide humanitarian assistance to people in eastern Ukraine.
It wasn’t clear when the deliveries would start.
“The practical details of this operation need to be clarified before this initiative can move forward,” said Laurent Corbaz, the ICRC’s head of operations for Europe and Central Asia.
Moscow had long urged Kiev to allow the aid delivery, but Ukraine and the West previously had opposed the move, fearing that it could serve as a pretext for sending Russian troops into rebel-held territory. Ukraine and the West have accused Moscow of arming and supporting the rebels fighting government troops in the east, a charge that the Kremlin has denied.
The Red Cross said it has shared a document with Ukrainian and Russian authorities that stipulates all parties must guarantee the security of its staff during the operation and respect the organization’s neutrality. [How exactly is Russia supposed to do that when these are *independent* Ukraine citizens standing against the US puppet government of Ukraine?]
The aid mission was announced after a conversation between U.S. President Barack Obama and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko Monday. The White House said that Obama and Poroshenko agreed that “any Russian intervention in Ukraine without the formal, express consent and authorization of the Ukraine government would be unacceptable and a violation of international law.” [More US propaganda. Russia has not intervened. On the contrary, it's the US that has stepped in to prop up a puppet government with US $5 BILLION - in aid of CORPORATE AMERICAN interests in Ukraine - which has already been divvied up and already has Biden's son ('Hunter' (sounds like a Palin name) installed in the country.]
Shortly before that, Russia had declared that it was dispatching a humanitarian convoy into Ukraine in cooperation with the Red Cross without giving any details. President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, later was quoted by Russian news wires as saying that the convoy wouldn’t involve and military personnel. [Ha, ha... Russia took the initiative and Obama and Poroshenko clowns trying to take credit, where they previously blocked aid to 3.9 million people. Despicable.]
Officials in Kiev took pains to specify Monday that the Ukrainian government was behind the humanitarian convoy initiative, and that Moscow was only one of several countries involved. [Of course they did. LMAO]
“Apart from deliveries provided by Ukraine, the mission will feature an international component, including aid provided to the International Committee of the Red Cross by the United States, the EU, as well as Russia,” Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said. [The EU's involved in propping up the US puppet govt of Ukraine]
The ministry also laid out specific conditions for the aid shipment, saying it should only pass through checkpoints controlled by the Ukrainian government. At least 100 kilometers (60 miles) of the long Russian-Ukrainian border is currently in rebel hands.
It said that the aid will be distributed by the Ukrainian authorities in the Luhansk region, one of the two mostly Russian-speaking rebel provinces.Some of the heaviest impact on civilians has been seen in Luhansk — the rebel-held capital of the Luhansk province that had a pre-war population of 420,000. [That I would not agree to. Who would trust them to distribute aid?]
City authorities said Monday that the 250,000 residents remaining have had no electricity or water supplies for nine days.Food, medicine and fuel are also not being delivered, the Luhansk city government said.
[...]
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized the West for its reluctance to support the delivery of Russian aid earlier, but voiced hope for the success of the mission. “I hope that our Western partners will not put a spanner in the works,” he said.
Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of the self-proclaimed rebel government in the Donetsk region, said Monday that the insurgents were ready to observe a cease-fire to allow humanitarian aid to pass into Luhansk.
The talk about the relief mission came as fierce fighting continued to rage in the east. Donetsk city council spokesman Maxim Rovinsky said a rocket hit a high-security prison Monday, killing at least one inmate and leaving three others severely wounded.
[...]
Both Ukrainian government forces and the pro-Russian rebels have deployed heavy Soviet-built weapons that lack precision. [Oh, blame Ukraine govt shelling Ukraine people on 'lack of precision'. *Eyeroll*. ]
Apartments and other civilian buildings have frequently been hit, adding to the mounting death toll among civilians. [Thank the Poroshenko US puppet government for that.]
Many of those in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine distrust the new central government in Kiev, which came to power after the February ouster of former President Viktor Yanukovych, whose power base was in eastern Ukraine. [His power base must have been wider, seeing he was the elected President.]
Fighting began a month after Russia annexed Ukraine’s peninsula of Crimea in March. [Oh, yes, tack on Crimea. And let's forget about ousting of an *ELECTED* President, installation of a US puppet government, the disregard for agreement signed with Russia, the signing of bullshit EU agreement, the US division of spoils in Ukraine, and the oppression of a sizeable Eastern Ukraine population who want no part in the US puppet state.]
EXTRACTS ONLY - FULL @ SOURCE
SOURCE - NEWS JOURNAL - HERE.
EU-NATO IMPERIALISM ❌ 