Russia presses for aid delivery to eastern Ukraine
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E-mail Xinhua, August 11, 2014
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Sunday that his country hopes that the issue of humanitarian aid corridors in eastern Ukraine would soon be resolved.
Lavrov said Russia was making efforts to reach an agreement with Ukraine, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the UN on humanitarian aid deliveries to Lugansk and Donetsk regions. "We hope we will be able to deliver aid to those in need as soon as possible."
"We think this is a pressing issue that admits of no delay. This issue is under Russian president's control," the Itar-Tass news agency quoted Lavrov as saying.
The minister said humanitarian aid was urgently needed in east Ukraine, as Lugansk was left without water and electricity and local hospitals were short of "basic medicines."
Lavrov also said a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine is not only possible but necessary, adding that Kiev agreed on the need for a ceasefire in April when it signed the Geneva statement.
During an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Russia and the UN called for humanitarian aid corridors to be established in conflict-scarred eastern Ukraine.
However, Ukraine's acting permanent representative to the UN Oleksandr Pavlychenko said "there is no humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and the situation is manageable."
Moreover, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry rejected the Russian initiative in a statement released on Friday.
The UN said on Tuesday that of the 117,910 people registered as internally displaced persons (IDPs) throughout Ukraine, 87 percent were from the east. There were 168,677 Ukrainians registered as having crossed into Russia -- 60,000 of those applying for refugee status and another 115,952 applying for other ways of staying legally in Russia.
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