Ukraine And Russia 'Agree' To Aid Mission To Luhansk -- BBC
Ukraine and Russia say they have agreed to a Red Cross-led humanitarian aid mission to the eastern Ukrainian rebel stronghold of Luhansk.
The Kremlin earlier announced it was working with the Red Cross to send a humanitarian aid convoy to the region.
The EU Commission chief has warned Russia not to carry out unilateral military action "under any pretext".
Ukraine and Western governments had previously objected to Russia sending any aid into the region.
The Red Cross has not yet commented on the latest announcements.
Read more ....
Update: Russia and Ukraine agree on humanitarian operation - Lavrov -- RT
My Comment: Everyone that I know who has a contact and/or knows someone in the war zone are telling me the same thing .... there is no water, no food, no electricity, no medical services .... everything has basically shut down because of the war. The ones who have been particularly hit are the elderly .... because most of them have no where else to go. This is why I see this agreement as a positive development .... it is giving hope to those who now find themselves in a desperate situation .... but I also know that before the first convoy is sent a lot can happen on the ground to change this agreement.
Update #2: Some are now saying that Ukraine had no choice but to agree with the Russian - Red Cross proposition .... Putin Defies Western Warning, Will Send "Aid Convoy" To East Ukraine (Zero Hedge). What's my take .... the more that I think about it the more that I feel that this is exactly what happened.
Update #3: Russia sending aid convoy to Ukraine despite Western warnings of invasion pretext -- Reuters
2 comments:
One thing that confuses me is that some news papers say that the humanitarian aid is a coliberation between Russia, Germany and some other countries and that Russia is only a part of it. Here are some of the newspapers say this:http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/ukraine-red-cross-to-lead-humanitarian-effort-to-luhansk-oblast-360193.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/poroshenko-announces-international-humanitarian-mission-in-eastern-ukraine/2014/08/11/f29adac2-217d-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage
and this is to me conserning: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28743478
1.
Will there be more sanctions against Russia because of this?
2.
What impact will this aid have on the conflict?
3.
Is there any risk of Russia smugling weapons to the pro-Russians and if they get caught doing that what will the consequenses most likely be?
4.
Ukraine lasted figure about the Russian troops on the border says that there is 45 thousand troops, is this a right figure or are they with intent overestemeting the numbers to get more suport from EU and US?
Putin bluntly said this morning that Russia was going to send humanitarian aid to Luhansk. Other countries have protested .... but he is not paying any attention ... and I have no doubt that he will do exactly what he says. Ukraine's answer has been confusing .... the humanitarian crisis in eastern Ukraine is a mess, and Kiev is under pressure from European countries to provide aid. By saying yes to something that they cannot stop is one way to palcate Kiev's European allies.
1) Europe is becoming more disunited over sanctions. I do not expect more sanctions to be employed.
2) The conflict is occurring independently from sanctions.
3) There is no need for Russia to use an aid convoy to smuggle weapons. They could do it very easily without it.
4) This is a good question. NATO says there are 20,000. Ukraine says 45,000. I suspect the truth is somewhere in between. But I do know that within a week Russia has the ability to have almost 50,000 soldiers on the border, and this does not include the 20,000 Russian troops in Crimea.
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