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| The Russian convoy stops behind a police escort near the city of Yelets, about 220 miles from the Ukrainian border |
Kiev says it will turn back shipment which Moscow describes as humanitarian but which west says could be prelude to invasion
A huge Russian convoy allegedly carrying humanitarian aid was on its way to war-torn eastern Ukraine on Tuesday night, in a operation which the west fears may be a prelude to a Russian invasion but which Moscow insists is designed to relieve the suffering of besieged residents trapped by conflict. About 280 military lorries hastily repainted white by Russian soldiers trundled off from the Moscow region despite a lack of international agreement over where exactly they were heading or what they contained. Ukraine said it would not allow the convoy to enter its territory. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) – informed by Moscow last week of a possible shipment – said the mode of transporting the aid safely to those who needed it had yet to be worked out. The prospect of Russian intervention in eastern Ukraine – the scene of fierce fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed separatists – has alarmed the US and EU. On Monday the Nato secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said there was a "high probability" of Russian attack which might happen "under the guise of a humanitarian operation".
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