A Russian aid convoy destined for Ukraine prepared to cross the border on Friday. The convoy of trucks underwent checks by Ukraine border and custom officials before it would be allowed to enter the country. (Aug. 15) AP
Drivers of Russian aid convoy and white trucks in a field outside the town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky in Rostov region, about 18 miles from the Russian-Ukrainian border on Aug. 15,2014.(Photo: Yuri Kochetkov, EPA)
Ukrainian troops on Friday "destroyed" part of what Kiev says was a Russian armed convoy that crossed into Ukraine around the same time as a truck convoy of humanitarian aid reached the border, according to Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for Ukraine's National Security Defense Council.
Atthe same time,Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday that a "significant" part of the Russian armored column had been destroyed, according to the Ukrainian leader's website, Reuters reports.
The convoy of some two-dozen armored personnel carrier slipped across the border early Friday.
Russia's foreign ministry, meanwhile, said Ukrainian forces are engaging in intense fighting in Eastern Ukraine to stop humanitarian aid to the region.
NATO leader Anders Fogh Rasmussen earlier confirmed that "a Russian incursion" over the Ukrainian border had been observed.
"It is a clear demonstration of continued Russian involvement in the destabilization of eastern Ukraine," Rasmussen said at a news conference in Denmark, according to the news agency AFP.
A reporter for The Guardian said he saw a column of 23 armoured personnel carriers, supported by fuel trucks and other logistics vehicles with official Russian military plates, crossing into Ukraine "through a gap in a barbed wire fence that demarcates the border."
The British foreign office summoned Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko "to clarify reports of Russian military incursion," the BBC reported.
The reports, if confirmed would mark the first direct clash between Ukrainian and Russian military troops since Russia-backed rebels took over large sectionsof eastern Ukraine.
The reported clash came in the wake of an effort by Russian to send a 262-54uck convoy to Ukraine.
Ukraine had insisted that the goods -- food, generators and medical supplies -- be inspected and reloaded before being allowed to proceed to hard-hit areas of eastern Ukraine, particularly the besieged city of Luhansk.
For several days, as the trucks wound their way from Moscow, Ukrainian officials expressed concern that the trucks might contain military equipment as a cover for a military invasion.
Russian convoy carrying humanitarian aid for residents in rebel eastern Ukraine arrives in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Friday.(Photo: Yuri Kochetkov, epa)
Ukrainian officials were quoted earlier Friday as saying the inspection was underway, but later Ukrainian national security spokesman An
The head of mission of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Paul Picard, confirmed to the BBC that the inspection had yet to begin.driy Lysenko told Ukrainian TV that the inspectors were still waiting for the relevant paperwork from the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to Interfax Ukraine.
The U.S. State Department also weighed in, saying that the U.S. had warned Russia that it "as no right to send vehicles or persons or cargo of any kind into Ukraine without the government's explicit permission," according to U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf on Thursday.
Under the deal finalized Friday morning, 41 Ukrainian border guards and 18 customs officials were tasked with inspecting the trucks, Ukrinform reports. Only one driver per truck, not a full crew, was being permitted to take the goods into Ukraine.
In line with Red Cross policy, there will be no military escort. The Red Cross will also exclusively carry out the final distribution of the goods.
The Russian white-tarped trucks had been parked since Thursday near Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, about 17 miles from the border. Much of the border in this part of eastern Ukraine has been under the control of the pro-Russia separatists
Russia sent the convoy south to the rebel-held crossing after deciding not to abide by an earlier tentative agreement to deliver the aid through a government-controlled border crossing in the Kharkiv region.
Laurent Corbaz, the International Committee of the Red Cross' director of operations in Europe, said the plan foresees the aid being delivered to a central point in rebel-held territory, then distributed through the region. It was unclear how long the operation might last, but "it's not going to be solved in one week," he said.
The humanitarian crisis emerged during four months of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian troops and rebels, who had declared the region independent. Government forces in the past two weeks have surrounded the key rebel strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk, which has been without water or electricity for three weeks.
The United Nation's nearly doubled its estimate for the number of people killed in eastern Ukraine to 2,086 as of Aug. 10 from 1,129 on July 26.
In announcing the deal, the Ukrainian foreign ministry did not hide its disdain for the separatists who control the border crossing and wide swaths of eastern Ukraine.
"It has been agreed that all humanitarian supplies, including Russian humanitarian aid destined for territory controlled by terrorists, will be delivered exclusively by the ICRC. The Committee will perform all of the logistics associated with storing and distributing the aid," the Ukrainian foreign ministry said in statement.
Sergei Astakhov, an assistant to the deputy head of Ukraine's border guard service, said Red Cross representatives would observe the inspections. Representatives from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were also on hand to observe the handover.
Contributing: Oren Dorell, in Washington; Associated Press
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