NATO’s top military officer questions Russian convoys to eastern Ukraine
A fragile ceasefire in eastern Ukraine comes under renewed pressure as Kyiv and NATO’s top military commander question the materials carried by a large convoy of Russian trucks headed to the embattled regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
- PHOTOS
A military convoy of about 30 trucks without license plates coming from the east moves on the road in Chartcizsk. (File photo: AFP/Eric Feferberg)
MOSCOW: NATO’s top military officer questioned whether Russia is violating a fragile ceasefire by sending a new convoy of heavy trucks into eastern Ukraine that Kyiv alleges include weapons for pro-Russian separatists battling government forces for control of the airport in the city of Donetsk.
The Ukraine government says the convoy is an illegal border crossing and is a cover for supplying rebels in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions with arms, such as heavy artillery shells.
But Moscow has said the trucks carry aid supplies with Oleg Voronov, deputy head of the national crisis centre of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, saying the convoy comprised more than 100 vehicles holding a combined 1,200 tonnes of cargo. “It is mainly construction materials, food supplies and life support staff,” Voronov said. Russia denies any military involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
However, Supreme Allied Commander of NATO Allied Command Operations and US Air Force General Philip Breedlove, said there is a link between the aid convoys and increased shelling that threatens to further undermine and often breached ceasefire agreement over the region reached in September. “In the recent past as we have seen more and more convoys coming into the eastern areas, we have seen more and more artillery pouring down on Ukrainian forces. I cannot draw any direct lines but this is an observation that we have.”
Since the convoy’s arrival in rebel-held territory, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military has accused Russian special forces of taking part in attacks at Donetsk’s strategically important airport. Fighting in the region has intensified the suffering of the surrounding population as the onset of winter approaches with temperatures are already dropping below -15 degrees Celsius at night, and many have been left without food and medical supplies.
Russian and Ukrainian military officials in eastern Ukraine monitor the ceasefire agreement, which both sides accused one another of violating in artillery shelling and gun battles almost daily, killing nearly a thousand since September, the United Nations’ human rights office has said.
– CNA/el