LUHANSK, Ukraine — A convoy of more than 200 white trucks crossed the Russian border to deliver humanitarian aid to a battered Ukrainian city on 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.
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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 on 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.
Continuous rocket fire could be heard overnight in Donetsk. A statement on the city council website said that shells hit residential buildings near the airport, although no casualties were reported. A column of three Grad rocket launchers – all its rockets still in place – was seen moving freely through the rebel-held city on Saturday morning.
In the other regional capital of Luhansk, one of the worst-hit cities where tens of thousands have been without water, electricity, or phone connections for weeks, the streets were calm as Russian drivers unloaded aid packages into local warehouses.
Stepanov said the goods consisted mainly of foodstuffs – rice, sugar and canned fish and beef – but also included medicine, technical equipment and clothes. The deliveries were in closed boxes, small enough to be easily carried by one person, but rice was seen spilling from a broken bag.
Inside the warehouse, an Associated Press journalist saw water bottles carrying the logo of Russia’s LDPR party, led by virulent nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
While dozens of local workers unloaded boxes, several carloads of armed militiamen in camouflage arrived to inspect the scene.
Stepanov said his team was responsible only for delivery, and distribution will be handled by local authorities – which for now means the separatist leaders of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic.
Gennady Tsepkalo, a senior separatist official, said retirees, hospital patients and schoolchildren would be priorities for aid. He said the food would not be used to feed rebel fighters.
“The militia will feed itself separately. This is for the residents of the Luhansk People’s Republic,” Tsepkalo said.
Luhansk shows deep scars of an unsuccessful, weeks-long shelling campaign by government troops. The government had regained growing swathes of territory from the separatists over several weeks, but a major rebel counteroffensive beginning in late August halted and reversed that trend.
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