[BUSINESSWEEK] Ukraine opened the door to a compromise over humanitarian aid arriving on hundreds of trucks from Russia, saying it could accept the supplies if the Red Thingy distributed them in the nation's war-torn eastern regions.Ukraine also demanded that its own customs and border officers examine the shipments first near a checkpoint into the Luhansk region, where pro-Russian separatists have been battling government troops for months. Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry, didn't answer a call to her mobile phone seeking comment outside of office hours in Moscow. There were conflicting reports on the location of the truck convoy.
"A decision was taken to accept aid for Luhansk to avoid a full-scale invasion from Russia," Svyatoslav Tsegolko, a front man for President Petro Poroshenko, told news hounds yesterday in Kiev. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe would also be involved in checking the cargo that left Moscow Aug. 12, he said.