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Following days of loud warnings by the West that Putin should not take any moves to send "humanitarian" aid into East Ukraine, due to western fears that this would be merely a pretext for invasion, Putin said on Monday that Russia will go ahead and send an aid convoy to eastern Ukraine anyway.
According to Reuters, European Commission President Barroso "delivered a blunt message in a telephone call with Putin on Monday. "President Barroso warned against any unilateral military actions in Ukraine, under any pretext, including humanitarian," the Commission said in a statement."
The Kremlin, in its own account of the conversation, made clear that Moscow would indeed send help to largely Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.
"It was noted that the Russian side, in collaboration with representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, is sending an aid convoy to Ukraine," the Kremlin statement said, without saying when the convoy was going.
And now that Putin's mind is made up, Ukraine has no choice but to accept, albeit with its so-called conditions:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he supported an aid mission but made clear it had to be an international effort under the aegis of the Red Cross, involving the European Union as well as Russia. Poroshenko said U.S. President Barack Obama had also backed the international plan when they spoke on the telephone on Monday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross made no immediate comment, although last weekend it issued a statement acknowledging receipt of an offer from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about organizing aid convoys
Russian convoy with humanitarian aid will depart to Eastern Ukraine shortly without any military escort - Kremlin spokesman
— RIA Novosti (@ria_novosti) August 11, 2014
At least 1,500 people have died since Ukraine's new government sent in troops to put down an insurrection by pro-Russia separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in mid-April.
The fighting has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom have fled to Russia.
Ukrainian forces have now encircled Donetsk, a city of one million people before the unrest began, and residents are struggling without power or reliable sources of food.
Russia has the right to supply aid and IMO to intervene with military intervention as it has got that far.
The 'government' of Kiev isn't exactly legitimate
Vladimir Putin has given the strongest indication yet that Russia is defusing its policy towards Ukraine, saying that Moscow will "respect the choice of the Ukrainian people" and work with the country's government after a new president is elected on Sunday.
originally posted by: theabsolutetruth
According to the BBC today, Donetsk is surrounded by Ukrainian troops, little electricity or food, bombed and scared. East Ukrainians have rights also and Russia has the right to supply aid and IMO to intervene with military intervention as it has got that far.
to intervene with military intervention as it has got that far.
If the same thing was happening to English people in Ireland for example, I am certain the UK government would step in.
Traditional IRA activities have included bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, punishment beatings, extortion, smuggling, and robberies. Before the cease-fire in 1997, the group had conducted bombing campaigns on various targets in Northern Ireland and Great Britain, including senior British Government officials, civilians, police, and British military targets.
Whos gonna monitor the ratio of food to machine gun ammo anybody......
a video was leaked of what allegedly this convoy looks like: some ~300 military vehicles, all repainted "Humanitarian White."
As we stated before, the vehicles are expected to be unarmed, which means that should something "bad" happen to them while on Ukraine territory, well, the word provocation certainly comes to mind.
Source
If something was going on in Mexico and the US decided to send aid, we would laugh at Russia or anyone else for demanding we not do so.
What in the world is on the back of that truck at the end of the video?