Russia’s so-called humanitarian convoy is a “fake” and Russia and Putin are solely responsible for its safety, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said during an interview with leading Ukrainian TV channels on Friday, August 22, as reported by Ukrinform.
“The entire Russian government machinery wants to manipulate the situation. Here they came up with the idea of the humanitarian cargo; they invented this provocation. I think the entire world has realized the falsity of Russian propaganda and of Russian intentions, ” he said.
According to Yatseniuk, it was never a question of a humanitarian mission. Russia wanted to enter Ukrainian territory through Kharkiv, under Russian flags, using the KAMAZ trucks that had been rapidly repainted on Russian bases and to declare the cargo as purely humanitarian.
“Why through Kharkiv? This was not in order to deliver the cargo to the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts more quickly. It was to enter Ukrainian territory that is fully under the control of Ukrainian armed forces. To advance some 50 kilometers and then to have a few Russian mercenaries, identified with the Russian label of so-called “Right Sector” or some other Ukrainian party, blast this convoy with grenades. They expect that a few vehicles of the so-called humanitarian convoy will be bombed — by the Russians themselves, of course — in order to declare to the world that this is the junta fighting with its own people. And we will not allow them to do this,” he said.
He emphasized that Ukraine’s position is clear: “the humanitarian aid can be delivered only by the Red Cross.”
Yatseniuk noted that the Ukrainian side was able to inspect 34 Russian KAMAZ trucks, most of which were practically empty. For example, in one truck designed to transport 25 tons, they found only 800 kg of tea. The remaining 33 trucks were filled up to a maximum of 8 tons, which means they were “practically empty,” he said.
Yatseniuk is convinced the Russian government is using the humanitarian convoy to provoke Ukraine and distract attention from its responsibility for the downing of the Malaysian airliner. “This fake, this lie is Goebbels-like propaganda in Russian,” he said.
Therefore, the Ukrainian side had made it very clear that the entire responsibility for (the safety) of the convoy lies solely with the Russian Federation and President Putin, he concluded.
[hr]Translated by Anna Mostovych
