Huge Russian Convoy Leaves Moscow for Ukraine

MOSCOW — An enormous Russian convoy of about 280 trucks carrying humanitarian aid has left Moscow for southeastern Ukraine, Russian television and news agencies reported Tuesday. The Russian aid has been an object of suspicion for Ukraine and its Western allies, which accuse the Kremlin of trying to use it as a stealth method to invade its smaller neighbor with armed forces to support the besieged separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk. But President Vladimir V. Putin and other senior Russian officials all insisted on Monday that it was a peaceful convoy coordinated with the International Committee of the Red Cross. Television images showed a long line of tractor-trailers stretched along a road. A Russian Orthodox priest was shown sprinkling the trucks with holy water before their departure.

 Many of the vehicles were draped in huge banners reading “humanitarian aid” in Russian, along with the double-headed eagle of Russia and its white, blue and red flag. The convoy was carrying 2,000 tons of humanitarian aid, according to the news agency Itar-Tass. It included 400 tons of cereals, 100 tons of sugar, 62 tons of baby food, 54 tons of medical equipment and medicine, 12,000 sleeping bags and 69 generators of various sizes, the agency reported. Talking about the convoy on Monday, Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said he hoped that the humanitarian effort would not be blocked by Ukraine or its Western allies.

 The Russian government began a concerted effort to get the convoy accepted on Monday, setting off alarm bells in the West despite the Kremlin’s insistence that it was coordinating its efforts with the Red Cross. The secretary general of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has estimated that there is a “high probability” that Russia will intervene militarily in Ukraine, and Ukraine has announced that even more Russian troops than previously thought are massed along the border. But Russian officials repeatedly insisted that the convoy was to provide relief, particularly to the besieged, separatist-held city of Luhansk, where residents have been without water and electricity for days.

FULL STORY: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/world/europe/russian-convoy-leaves-moscow-for-ukraine-bearing-aid.html