Ukraine crisis: Russia plans to second aid convoy to eastern Ukraine
Russia wants to send a second humanitarian aid convoy to eastern Ukraine in the near future, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday after Kyiv and the West criticised Moscow for sending the first cargo without official permission.
“The humanitarian situation is not improving but deteriorating,” Lavrov told a news conference. “We want to reach an agreement on all conditions for delivering a second convoy by the same route… in the coming days.”
An aid convoy of more than 200 trucks was widely condemned last week, as Kyiv and Western countries worried Russia was bringing weapons and supplies to pro-Russian separatist fighters.
Lavrov also said damage to civilian infrastructure in east Ukraine, where Kyiv is fighting a pro-Russian rebellion, cannot all be put down to errors or chance.
One day before Ukraine’s new president Petro Poroshenko is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Minsk, Lavrov offered hope that the two sides may find a solution to the months-long conflict.
Lavrov agreed to any format of diplomatic talks, “as long as there is a result.”
He said the aim was “to help Ukrainians agree among themselves.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian government forces engaged with a separatist armoured column near the southeastern town of Novoazovsk, about 10 kilometres from the Russian border, Ukraine’s military information service said on Monday.
Border guards halted the advance of the column about five kilometres northeast of the town, which is on the Azov Sea, it said in a Facebook post.