RL: Russian aid convoy into Ukraine called 'direct invasion' ?!

Day 2,467, 05:08 • Published in Serbia Serbia • by 3xodus

The Russian aid convoy that entered Ukraine is a "direct invasion for the first time under cynical cover of the Red Cross," the head of Ukraine's security service said

Russia has sent 34 trucks from a humanitarian aid convoy that was stalled at the border for days into eastern Ukraine without Red Cross monitors, in violation of a Russian-Ukrainian agreement, a Ukrainian military official said Friday.
Another 90 vehicles are headed toward the Ukrainian border, according to Col. Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for Ukraine's National Defense and Security Council.
Russian and Ukrainian customs had cleared the first 34 trucks Thursday night on the assumption that the International Committee of the Red Cross would be with them.
But the Red Cross said it was no longer with the convoy because of the "volatile security situation."

Red Cross monitors were supposed to accompany the convoy but decided not to do so because they did not get the security guarantees they needed, the agency said.
Ukrainian border guards, customs officers and Red Cross representatives have not been given access to the group of 90 vehicles, Lysenko said.
He said that the Ukrainian side had proposed talks with Russia over the humanitarian aid but that Moscow had refused.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said the first group of trucks was headed toward Luhansk, one of two regions at the center of the conflict between pro-Russia rebels and Ukrainian forces.
Russian state news agency Itar-Tass said the initial convoy carried food and essential items for people in the region.
Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council said Friday that the customs service had granted access for 34 vehicles, 34 people and 268,020 kilograms of Russian humanitarian aid.

The formation of the convoy initially sparked fears that Russia was trying to use a humanitarian mission as a cover for sending in more aid and weapons for pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.
But Ukrainian officials acknowledged Sunday that the convoy of more than 260 Russian vehicles was, in fact, carrying humanitarian aid.
In a statement Friday, Russia's Foreign Ministry accused Ukraine of using pretexts in the days since to hold up the movement of the convoy while escalating its attacks on pro-Russia rebels in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The ministry claimed that Ukrainian leaders were deliberately delaying the delivery of the humanitarian aid until there was no one left to deliver it to.
It said that it was ready for Red Cross staffers to accompany the Russian convoy and help with the distribution of aid.
The ongoing fighting -- sparked last year by a political crisis over whether Ukraine would seek closer ties with Europe or Russia -- has left more than 2,000 people dead and nearly 5,000 wounded in eastern Ukraine since mid-April, according to estimates from U.N. officials.
Four Ukrainian soldiers have been killed over the past 24 hours, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council said Friday.