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| Europe |
| Ukraine says will not let 'Putin's' convoy onto its territory |
| 2014-08-14 |
| [Al Ahram] A massive Russian aid convoy rumbled towards Ukraine's border on Wednesday as Kiev vowed to block what it feared could be a "Trojan horse" bringing military assistance to pro-Kremlin rebels fighting a bloody insurgency in the east. Russian television images showed a line of nearly 300 lorries moving through the countryside, covered with white tarpaulin and stretching over almost three kilometres (two miles). The mission has sparked fears the four-month conflict, which has already left over 1,500 dead and plunged relations between Moscow and the West to a post-Cold War nadir, could be about to escalate even further. Western powers say Russia might use the operation as a "Trojan horse" to sneak in troops or weapons for pro-Moscow Death Eaters, who have been losing ground against government troops in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine's interior minister Arsen Avakov lashed out at Moscow's move as a "provocation by the cynical aggressor" and reiterated Kiev's insistence that "no humanitarian convoy of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's will be allowed to cross the territory." Earlier, it said the trucks would be stopped at the border, and the aid unloaded and transported into conflict-torn eastern Ukraine with the help of the International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC). Russia insists it has coordinated the mission with the ICRC and that the convoy does not include military personnel. But the ICRC has denied it is involved and told AFP they had not been able to check what was inside the convoy. A journalist from Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda travelling with the convoy wrote on Twitter on Wednesday morning that the lorries had halted as they waited for "political decisions" to be taken. Other Russian journalists with the convoy said it was due to arrive at the border by evening. There were concerns in Kiev that the vehicles, officially bound for a government-controlled border checkpoint, could take a different route to the east across a rebel-held stretch of the border. The convoy -- with between 262 and 287 vehicles, according to Russia's foreign ministry -- left the Moscow region on Tuesday carrying over 1,800 tonnes of "humanitarian supplies", including medical equipment, baby food, sleeping bags, and electric generators, Russian media reported. |
| Posted by:Fred |