MOSCOW, August 25 (RIA Novosti) — Russian Red Cross officials will discuss the possible delivery of another batch of Russian humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine with a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Moscow later this week.
Igor Trunov, who heads the Moscow department of the Russian Red Cross, said Monday the meeting with Pascal Cuttat, head of the ICRC’s regional delegation to Russia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, will take place on Thursday.
"We have agreed to meet with the ICRC representative on Thursday. It would be right to send this second humanitarian convoy under the Russian Red Cross banner. This will make the whole situation a lot simpler," Trunov said.
Earlier on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia had sent an official diplomatic note informing Ukraine of its plans to send an additional humanitarian convoy within the next few days.
On August 22, a convoy of 280 trucks with 2,000 tons of humanitarian aid arrived in Ukraine’s eastern city of Luhansk, where a military operation has been ongoing since mid-April.
The convoy was at the Russian-Ukrainian border on August 14, but Kiev had been postponing its final approval for the trucks to proceed into Ukraine.
ICRC representatives refused to escort the humanitarian convoy on the territory of Ukraine, due to the security concerns.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry described the convoy crossing the Russian border as a violation of international norms.
Moscow said that Russia received a formal agreement from Ukrainian authorities for the passage of the humanitarian convoy across the border on August 12.
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