The prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic has accused Ukraine of deliberately stalling Russian humanitarian aid.
“At the moment, the Donetsk people’s republic has a very bad humanitarian situation and the help that Russia is sending us and we have still not received, we just need it like air,” Alexander Zakharchenko said at a briefing in Donetsk on Thursday.
The newly-elected prime minister also said Ukraine was stalling the delivery of Russian aid by “dreaming up” various pretexts and legal obstacles.
“It’s not just the Ukrainian army that doesn’t want the human aid to get through and stops it doing that… but the Ukrainian government that with all possible obstacles, legal or otherwise, simply prevents it, legally prevents its passing,” he added.
A convoy of Russian humanitarian aid of at about 300 vehicles has been parked at a military depot in southern Russia amid disagreement between Moscow and Kiev over how and where it would cross into Ukraine.
Russia says it seeks to provide the people in eastern Ukraine with 2,000 tons of water, baby food and other humanitarian aid. Moscow insists it has coordinated the dispatch of the goods with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
However, the Kiev government and some Western states have reportedly said the humanitarian aid convoy could be a cover for a Russian military “incursion” into Ukraine.
Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions in the east have witnessed deadly clashes between pro-Russia protesters and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations to stifle the pro-Russian protests.
The political unrest in eastern Ukraine has so far claimed the lives of more than 2,000 people, according to figures by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
SRK/MHB/MAM
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