<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Friday,  April 26 , 2024

Linkedin Pinterest
News / Nation & World

Standoff ensues over Russian convoy

Death toll in Ukraine unrest soars, U.N. reports

The Columbian
Published: August 14, 2014, 12:00am
2 Photos
A convoy of white trucks with humanitarian aid park at the military base not far from Voronezh, Russia, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014. Russia on Wednesday dispatched some hundreds of trucks, although only a small proportion were counted in this convoy, covered in white tarps and sprinkled with holy water on a mission to deliver aid to a rebel-held zone in eastern Ukraine.
A convoy of white trucks with humanitarian aid park at the military base not far from Voronezh, Russia, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014. Russia on Wednesday dispatched some hundreds of trucks, although only a small proportion were counted in this convoy, covered in white tarps and sprinkled with holy water on a mission to deliver aid to a rebel-held zone in eastern Ukraine. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin) Photo Gallery

As a standoff ensued between Russia and Ukraine over a massive aid convoy dispatched from Moscow, the United Nations on Wednesday sharply increased its estimate of the death toll from four months of fighting in eastern Ukraine.

A spokeswoman for the U.N. human rights office in Geneva said the number of dead from the Donetsk and Luhansk conflict zones had nearly doubled over the past two weeks as Ukrainian government forces close in on the pro-Russia separatists’ last strongholds.

Fighting has intensified and knocked out power, water and communications to much of the remaining separatist-held territory, leaving civilians who did not evacuate in dramatically deteriorating conditions.

In Geneva, spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly of the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said world body officials now conservatively calculate that 2,086 people have died in eastern Ukraine hostilities since mid-April. That is near double the 1,129 death toll reported by the rights office on July 26.

Russia on Tuesday dispatched a 280-truck convoy said to be carrying food, water, medicine and generators for those trapped in Luhansk, with Kremlin leaders saying they had agreed on the details of transit and delivery with the Ukrainian government.

But a key condition set by the Kiev leadership was that the relief goods be transported through Ukrainian territory under escort by the International Committee of the Red Cross and in vehicles owned or leased by the Swiss-based aid agency.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko earlier had rejected the Kremlin’s attempt to send Russian aid to the region held by pro-Russia separatists but relented Monday when Russia agreed to an international relief mission under ICRC auspices and escort.

Laurent Corbaz, head of Red Cross operations for Europe and Central Asia, said Tuesday that he had yet to receive a cargo manifest or distribution plan from Moscow, nor had the agency received credible assurances from either Russia or Ukraine that its employees could travel safely through the battle zones.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov posted a statement on his Facebook page Wednesday calling the Russian aid mission a “cynical provocation” by Russian aggressors.

Loading...