Ukraine to Block Russian Aid Trucks as It Tightens Noose Around Rebels

By Volodymyr Verbyany and Kateryna Choursina  

Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Ukraine won’t let a convoy of 280 trucks that Russia says are carrying humanitarian aid to cross into its territory in its current form as it doesn’t adhere to international rules and must be led by the Red Cross. Bloomberg’s Ryan Chilcote reports on “In The Loop.” (Source: Bloomberg)

Ukraine won’t let a convoy of 280 trucks that Russia says are carrying humanitarian aid enter the country in its current form because it argues the mission doesn’t adhere to international rules and must be led by the Red Cross.
Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said the trucks with 2,000 metric tons of donated food, medicine and water left Moscow for rebel-held eastern Ukraine today. Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said they carried military gear in the guise of aid. The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross said it’s not in charge of the convoy at the moment and has asked for more details of what it contains.
The ICRC needs “some clarification first regarding modalities, practical steps that have to be implemented prior to launch such an operation,” Laurent Corbaz, its head of operations for Europe, said in a video on the Red Cross website. “We seriously need
security guarantees, for example, and direct contact with all the parties; this is not settled yet. We need as well to know precisely what is inside the convoy, the size of this convoy, and the various material that is going to be handed over.”

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Photographer: RTR via AP Photo

In this image taken from video, a convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid leaves... Read More

The aid push comes as Ukrainian forces tighten a noose around rebel strongholds in the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, where thousands of people are without water, power and medical aid. Ukraine blames Russian President Vladimir Putin for stoking a separatist war in the east after annexing the Crimean peninsula in March with the help of troops in unmarked uniforms.

‘Act of Aggression’

“Our stance is the following: we are not considering any movement of Russian columns through Ukrainian territory,” Valery Chaly, the deputy head of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s administration, said in Kiev. Only trucks owned or rented by the Red Cross will be allowed, and Ukraine will consider an attempt by any military convoy or operation to cross the border “as an act of aggression,” Chaly said.
Russia says the convoy is due to reach the border tonight, Corbaz said. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on its website the trucks would arrive the frontier on the route from Belgorod to the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv -- at a point about 700 kilometers (430 miles) by road from Moscow. The convoy will then travel on within Ukraine under ICRC auspices, and Russia is complying with Ukrainian wishes for checks, it said.

Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko rejected a call for a cease-fire by militants two... Read More

The Red Cross is “in constant contact” with Ukrainian and Russian authorities, Corbaz said. “They know our requirements; we are waiting for their feedback.”

Cease-Fire Rejected

A Snapshot of Ukraine's Past and Future

Poroshenko rejected a call for a cease-fire by militants two days ago and told them to abandon their effort to wrest the eastern regions from Kiev’s control and join Russia in a rebellion that has killed more than 1,200 people.
Ukraine’s currency, the hryvnia, fell 4.3 percent to 13.4 per dollar, extending its decline this month to 8.4 percent, the most among all currencies tracked by Bloomberg. The Russian ruble dropped 0.6 percent to 36.1546 per dollar.
Russian state television broadcast footage of white trucks labeled “humanitarian aid” setting off. Pictures showed their crews wearing khaki shirts and shorts and an Orthodox priest blessing the convoy.
Russia’s Emergencies Ministry sent the aid in coordination with the Moscow regional administration, spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky said by phone. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said yesterday the army wouldn’t be involved, RIA Novosti news service reported.

‘Several Days’

“The Emergencies Ministry’s humanitarian-aid convoy will be traveling for several days,” Drobyshevsky said, according to news service Itar-Tass. “The destination where the humanitarian aid is to be handed over to residents of Ukraine will be decided with representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Ukrainian side.”

Photographer: Max Vetrov/AFP via Getty Images

Two women talk next to a damaged house in Donetsk. The aid push comes as Ukrainian... Read More

The Red Cross will conduct an evaluation of what people in the conflict zone need that may take a week, Lysenko said. “The humanitarian mission will be undertaken after this evaluation,” he told reporters in Kiev.
“There are international rules for providing humanitarian aid,” Alla Khabarova, the head of the Red Cross in Ukraine, said by phone. “They should have done it via the Russian Red Cross and via us and provided a list of what aid is provided and who is accompanying it. All military action, all shooting, has to be ended.”
Ukraine has been joined by the U.S. and the European Union in warning Russia not to use aid as a pretext for military intervention. The Red Cross says it can’t accept military protection for aid operations.

‘Genuinely Humanitarian’

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande discussed Ukraine in a phone call today and agreed on the need for a “genuinely humanitarian” aid mission, Merkel’s office said in an e-mailed statement.
Any aid would provide relief from fighting that has driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in the deepest rift between Russia and the U.S. and its allies since the end of the Cold War.
Ukraine’s military said yesterday it’s near the end of its operation to encircle the remaining separatist strongholds and called on civilians to leave Donetsk and Luhansk. Encirclement of the rebels would shut off routes to the Russian border and sever their supply lines.

Power Cut

The fighting is causing havoc in the residential areas where it’s now concentrated. Luhansk, where about half of the 500,000 population remains, is completely isolated, with electricity cut off in the center and people without phone connections, food, medication or fuel, the city council said on its website. May residents have had no power for three weeks and most shops are closed.
Seven civilians were wounded after shelling and shooting in Donetsk overnight, the city council said.
Ukraine’s parliament approved a bill on imposing sanctions against Russian companies and people in the first reading today. The government in Moscow responded to sanctions last week by banning Ukrainian, American and EU food imports.
Ukraine, which stopped receiving Russian gas in June while acting as a conduit for supplies to Europe, may impose a “complete or partial” ban on energy shipments from its neighbor, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said last week.