Officials yet to agree upon terms of Russian humanitarian aid convoy

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Concorde Capital – August 13, 2014) The Russian government has agreed upon the route of the humanitarian convoy and hopes that the Ukrainian government will ensure its safety on its controlled territory, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in an Aug. 12 statement. The two governments agreed that the humanitarian aid will be delivered to a border crossing between the Kharkiv and Belgorod oblasts, the statement said. Once crossing into Ukraine, the convoy will be guided by the Red Cross International Committee.

The aid consists of 69 electric generators, 400 tons of grain, 340 tons of canned meat, 100 tons of sugar, 30 tons of salt, 679.5 tons of bottled water, 62.4 tons of baby food, 54 tons of medical supplies and 12,300 sleeping bags, among other items. “We expect the appropriate attitude to this humanitarian act from the rebels,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, as reported by the Interfax news agency. “We have already sent the appropriate signals. I am sure there won’t be any failures from their side.”

The Russian government violated its agreement with the Red Cross, declaring that it sent its humanitarian aid to Ukraine but without providing a list of its contents, Red Cross spokesman Andre Loersch told Deutsche Welle on Aug. 12. “These statements completely confused us,” he said. “Now we’re supposed to figure out ourselves what is happening.” The main condition for cooperation with the humanitarian mission is the transfer of aid items for review, Loersch said, which is supposed to occur at an official point on the Ukrainian border.

The vehicles transported the humanitarian aid from Russia won’t enter Ukrainian territory, said on Aug. 12 Valeriy Chaly, a deputy chair of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine. “We are not considering any movement of Russian convoys on Ukrainian territory,” he said. The aid will undergo customs approval and the Red Cross will be responsible for delivering the aid afterwards in its own rented vehicles, he said. “That way, we won’t allow an escort of Russia’s Interior Ministry or other enforcement authorities in Ukraine,” Chaly said.

The Russian government declined to transfer the humanitarian convoy from its KamAZ trucks onto the Red Cross’s rented vehicles, Lavrov said on Aug. 12, as reported by the RIA Novosti news agency. “We agreed to our trucks getting Ukrainian license plates while traveling in Ukrainian territory,” he said. The report didn’t specify with whom he reached the agreement.

Zenon Zawada: Already this episode is taking on farcical tones. Much speculation has surfaced on what would motivate the Russian government to play games with a convoy, while delivering arms and fighters at the same time. Certainly, the incident will be used for propaganda purposes in the Russian media, portraying the Ukrainian government as denying humanitarian aid to its own people.