Donetsk, Feb 25 - DAN. Ukrainian forces deliver aimed fire at Yelenovka in order not to allow the humanitarian aid convoys of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to enter the Donetsk People’s Republic via the only operating crossing point which is located in the settlement, DPR representative to the Contact Group talks, the Republic’s Foreign Minister Natalia Niikonorova said on Thursday.
Yelenovka is located south of Donetsk. On Wednesday, Kiev army units opened infantry fighting vehicle cannon fire at Yelenovka for the first time in the past two weeks. Two houses and a transmission line were damaged. On Thursday morning, Kiev forces delivered a new strike at the settlement using mortars.
“Having been informed about the planned UN and ICRC humanitarian aid transit to the DPR and the LPR, Ukraine arranged a carefully planned anti-humanitarian action by delivering, for two days in a row, strikes at Yelenovka where a humanitarian aid convoy had to enter the Republic through the Yelenovka-Novotroitskoye crossing point,” Nikonorova said.
The strikes cannot be called accidental or viewed as high-handedness of Kiev formations’ local commanders because on Wednesday, Ukraine informed representatives of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refuges and the International Committee of the Red Cross that allowing the passage of cargoes through the checkpoint outside Donetsk was not possible, allegedly due to the currently unsafe situation. At that point however, the situation in the Yelenovka area was calm.
“We regard the blocking of the humanitarian cargo by Ukraine as cynical and contradicting all international norms and principles,” the DPR representative said.
The Republic sent an official address to Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Ambassador Heidi Grau.
The ICRC refrained from disclosing to the Donetsk News Agency the information on the present whereabouts of their humanitarian aid convoy or its route to the DPR. As of the time of publication of this news item, the Donetsk News Agency office had not received an official answer from the UN regarding their relief supplies delivery problem.*jk