UKRAINE: The West warned Russia on Saturday that any attempt to enter Ukraine on "humanitarian" grounds would be considered an "illegal" invasion after Kiev claimed Russian troops had tried to cross the border in the guise of aid workers.
Moscow denied the claim, saying "Russian troops made no attempt to penetrate" Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels in the east admitted that their stronghold Donetsk had been surrounded by Kiev's troops.
"We have difficulty understanding what the Ukrainians are talking about," Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told the Interfax news agency.
But US President Barack Obama, Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron and Germany's Angela Merkel made it clear they would not brook any attempt by Russia to use humanitarian excuses to sneak troops and military equipment into the conflict-torn east of Ukraine.
"The Prime Minister and President are absolutely clear that such a so-called humanitarian mission would be unjustified and illegal," Downing Street said in a statement following a phone call between Obama and Cameron.
Obama and Merkel also spoke on the phone on Saturday, with both agreeing that any Russian intervention would be "unacceptable", the White House said.
The West has accused Russia of abetting the insurgency by supplying it with weapons, and Kiev said it had scuppered an attempt by Russia to send troops across its porous eastern borders under the guise of aid workers.
"A huge convoy moved towards the Ukrainian border, accompanied by Russian troops and military hardware," Valeriy Chaliy, deputy head of President Petro Poroshenko's office said late on Friday in a television interview.
Although it denied the allegations, Moscow nonetheless called on Western countries to back its plans for a "humanitarian mission" to east Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov phoned his US counterpart John Kerry on Saturday "to underline the need for urgent measures to avert the imminent humanitarian crisis" in the region, according to a statement from the Russian foreign ministry.
Poroshenko said his government would be willing to accept an aid mission to the rebel bastion of Lugansk where local authorities said was on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe, but only under strict conditions.
"We are ready to accept humanitarian aid if the mission is an international one, without any military escort and if it passes through border checkpoints controlled by Ukrainian guards," Poroshenko told Merkel in a phone conversation, according to a statement issued by his office.
He added he was already in discussions with Red Cross chief Peter Maurer over a possible mission.
Comments
Comments are closed.