Ukrainian border guards, OSCE monitors examine humanitarian convoy for Donbas - Russian Emergency Situations Ministry
LUHANSK. Feb 18 (Interfax) - Ukrainian border guards and representatives of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) have examined trucks of the 49th humanitarian convoy of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, convoy supervisor Sergei Shulishevsky has said.
"All border and customs control procedures were passed at the Donetsk checkpoint in strict compliance with international laws," Shulishevsky told reporters in Luhansk on Thursday.
"Both Russian representatives and Ukrainian border officers were present at the checkpoint. OSCE representatives were there, too," Shulishevsky said.
Trucks of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry's convoy are being unloaded at Luhansk warehouses, he said.
The Ukrainian State Border Service said later on Thursday that Russia had unilaterally cleared another humanitarian convoy for Donbas comprising of 101 trucks.
"Today, the Russian side unilaterally cleared another so-called humanitarian convoy. Two columns of the 'humanitarian convoy' comprising 101 vehicles crossed into Ukraine through the Russian checkpoints, Donetsk and Matveyev Kurgan, in the period from 5:55 a.m. to 6:50 a.m.," the press service said.
In the opinion of the border guards, "the humanitarian convoy traveled in flagrant violation of international and Ukrainian laws and the modalities coordinated with the International Committee of Red Cross, and the Ukrainian interdepartmental group exercised control exclusively by means of visual monitoring, without performing its controlling functions."
The press service said that the type of the cargo mismatched the parameters indicated in the Russian Foreign Ministry's memo. For instance, the memo did not mention books of unknown content, industrial power plants and generators, and electric building instruments. The Ukrainian border guards also claimed that canned meat and fish transported by the trucks had an expired shelf life.