Russia delivers more aid ; Ukraine repels rebel siege

/NEWS

  • Russia delivers more aid; Ukraine repels rebel siege | The Journal Gazette (Associated Press)
    http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20140914/NEWS04/309149960/1006/NEWS


    Pro-Russian armoured vehicles drive down the road leading to the destroyed Luhansk International Airport, eastern Ukraine, on September 11, 2014.
    © AFP

    A convoy of more than 200 white trucks crossed the Russian border to deliver humanitarian aid to a battered Ukrainian city Saturday, a move made without Kiev’s consent yet met with silence by Ukraine’s top leaders.

    Early in the morning, we entered Ukraine to bring aid to Luhansk,” said Yury Stepanov, a Russian who was overseeing the convoy. “We came in around 215 vehicles,” he added, as workers unloaded boxes into a local warehouse.

    The much-needed aid arrived as fighting flared again between pro-Russian rebels and government forces, further imperiling an already fragile cease-fire in the region.

    On Saturday, Ukraine’s military operation in the east said it had repelled a rebel attack on the government-held airport of Donetsk, which came under artillery fire from rebel positions late Friday. Ukrainian authorities also admitted for the first time since the cease-fire started last week that they have inflicted casualties on the rebel side.