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Ukraine convoy attack near Luhansk leaves ‘no survivors’

Ukrainian soldier with a Grad rocket launcher (18 August) Both sides in the conflict use Russian-made Grad rockets Continue reading the main story No-one survived an attack on a convoy of refugees in the Luhansk area of eastern Ukraine on Monday, a rebel source has told the BBC. Details of the attack are still unclear but a Ukrainian military spokesman has said 15 bodies have so far been recovered from the scene. Ukraine has accused pro-Russian rebels of attacking the convoy but they have denied involvement. Meanwhile, heavy fighting is reported in the centre of Luhansk itself. The government in Kiev said on Tuesday that street battles were taking place and an interior ministry aide told the Interfax Ukraine agency that the military was recapturing the city "block by block". The city centre was reported to have been shelled on Monday night. Tens of thousands of civilians have fled […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Ukraine convoy attack near Luhansk leaves 'no survivors'

Ukrainian soldier with a Grad rocket launcher (18 August) Both sides in the conflict use Russian-made Grad rockets Continue reading the main story No-one survived an attack on a convoy of refugees in the Luhansk area of eastern Ukraine on Monday, a rebel source has told the BBC. Details of the attack are still unclear but a Ukrainian military spokesman has said 15 bodies have so far been recovered from the scene. Ukraine has accused pro-Russian rebels of attacking the convoy but they have denied involvement. Meanwhile, heavy fighting is reported in the centre of Luhansk itself. The government in Kiev said on Tuesday that street battles were taking place and an interior ministry aide told the Interfax Ukraine agency that the military was recapturing the city "block by block". The city centre was reported to have been shelled on Monday night. Tens of thousands of civilians have fled […]

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Russia says agreement reached on aid to Ukraine but not on ceasefire

BERLIN (Reuters) – Russia on Monday said all objections to it sending a humanitarian convoy to Ukraine had been resolved but said no progress had been made in Berlin talks toward a ceasefire between government and rebel forces in the east of the country. Following the talks between Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine on Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said "finally, all questions have been resolved … related to the Russian initiative to send 300 trucks with humanitarian aid." "Everything has been agreed with Ukraine and the International Committee of the Red Cross," he said at a news conference in Berlin. Russia and Ukraine have been at loggerheads over a convoy of 280 Russian trucks carrying water, food and medicine. It has been parked for days in Russia near the border amid objections from Kiev, which believes the convoy could be a Trojan Horse for Russia to get […]

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EU considers gas talks with Russia, Ukraine

European Commission President said future trilateral talks with Kiev and Moscow would focus on energy and national security issues. Barroso said he spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the overall context of the situation in Ukraine . Ukraine and Russia have historic differences over natural gas. Russian energy company Gazprom in 2006 and 2009 cut gas supplies through Ukraine, jeopardizing downstream supplies to Europe , in response to contractual woes. That problem was exacerbated when in late 2013 Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, started tilting toward the European Union through an association agreement. "It was agreed to hold consultations between the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and the European Commission on the issues related with the implementation of the association agreement as well as on the supply of gas, in parallel with the efforts to stabilize the political and security situation," Barroso’s office said in a […]

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War for ‘New Russia’ drives Ukraine separatists

Pro-Russian separatists carry an ammunition part in Donetsk The resignation of Igor Girkin, the Russian military mastermind behind the takeover of large parts of eastern Ukraine by rebel fighters, this week was the latest crack to appear at the top of the months-long rebellion that has become increasingly strained. His departure is the third high-profile change in the rebel hierarchy in the past week. Alexander Borodai, also a Muscovite, stepped down last week as prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic. With Mr Girkin, he was part of Russian-backed separatist forces in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria in the early 1990s. More On this story On this topic IN Europe The replacement of both with Ukrainians marks a transition in the leadership from highly trained Russian military officers to locally recruited warlords in an increasingly tense stand-off with Ukrainian forces . “It will be like Stalingrad,” an armed […]

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Ukraine races to beat Russian humanitarian aid convoy

epaselect epa04351827 A picture made available 13 August 2014 shows the Russian convoy carrying humanitarian aid for residents in rebel eastern Ukrainian regions moving along a road in the city of Voronezh, about 530 km from Moscow, Russia, 12 August 2014. Ukraine said that any foreign humanitarian aid will have to be delivered by the International Committee of the Red Cross, dealing a blow to a large Russian convoy en route to the country’s embattled east. The Ukrainian government fears the Russians could be supplying arms to separatists, under the guise of supplying 2,000 tons of food and medicine to civilians in the rebel-held areas. EPA/KIRILL USOLTSEV/MOE-ONLINE.RU The Russian convoy moves along a road in the city of Voronezh, about 530 km from Moscow on Tuesday. The convoy was still there on Wednesday. The road forks at the city, allowing two routes into Ukraine Kiev sent its own convoy […]

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Ukraine accuses Russia of cynicism over convoy; death toll rises sharply

KIEV/VORONEZH Russia (Reuters) – Ukraine denounced Russia’s dispatch of a humanitarian aid convoy now advancing towards the border as an act of unbounded cynicism serving pro-Russian separatists, and the UN said the death toll in fighting had doubled in the last two weeks to over 2,000. Kiev said the trucks would not be allowed to pass. "First they send tanks, Grad missiles and bandits who fire on Ukrainians and then they send water and salt," Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said at a government meeting on Wednesday. The comments reflected suspicions in Kiev and Western capitals that passage of the convoy onto Ukrainian soil could turn into a covert military action to help pro-Russian separatists now losing ground to government forces. The convoy of 280 heavy trucks rumbled out of Moscow region on Tuesday and traveled some 500 km (300 miles) to the southwestern Russian town of Voronezh. There it […]

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Ukraine Open to Russian Aid If Distributed by Red Cross

Ukraine opened the door to a compromise over humanitarian aid arriving on hundreds of trucks from Russia, saying it could accept the supplies if the Red Cross distributed them in the nation’s war-torn eastern regions. Ukraine also demanded that its own customs and border officers examine the shipments first near a checkpoint into the Luhansk region, where pro-Russian separatists have been battling government troops for months. Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, didn’t answer a call to her mobile phone seeking comment outside of office hours in Moscow. There were conflicting reports on the location of the truck convoy. “A decision was taken to accept aid for Luhansk to avoid a full-scale invasion from Russia ,” Svyatoslav Tsegolko, a spokesman for President Petro Poroshenko, told reporters yesterday in Kiev. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe would also be involved in checking the cargo that left Moscow […]

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Ukraine to Block Russian Aid Trucks as It Tightens Noose Around Rebels

A convoy Russia says is loaded with humanitarian assistance for rebel-held areas of Ukraine headed for the border, as the government in Kiev set conditions for letting the aid in and the Red Cross demanded more details. Russia’s government said 280 trucks with 2,000 metric tons of donated food, medicine and water left Moscow yesterday and would proceed into Ukraine under the auspices of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross. Viktor Shcherbanyuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Red Cross in Kiev, said today there were was no agreeement for the convoy’s entry either with his organization or with the ICRC. The convoy was on its way to the Russian city of Belgorod about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, RIA Novosti said today. Related: Russia Stocks Fluctuate as Aid Convoy Rekindles Ukraine Tensions Ukraine expressed fears the convoy is carrying military equipment to […]

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Russia Sends Aid Convoy to Eastern Ukraine

A convoy of 280 trucks near Moscow left for Ukraine on an international humanitarian relief mission on Tuesday morning. Ukrainian and Western leaders have expressed concerns that Russia could use an aid mission as cover for sending troops into rebel-held territory. (Photo: AP) MOSCOW—Russia sent a convoy of 280 trucks carrying what it said was humanitarian aid for war-torn cities in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, setting off diplomatic tension over efforts to ease civilian suffering there. Ukrainian officials said that they had been notified by Moscow of the column and that it was expected to cross the border at a post near Kharkiv, under the control of Ukrainian authorities and the International Red Cross. But Kiev said the cargo would have to be transferred from the Russian trucks to Red Cross vehicles at the border, warning that any unilateral attempt to deliver aid would be viewed as an act […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple