Kiev Preventing UN Humanitarian Convoy Delivering Aid To Luhansk From Returning - Official

LUHANSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd March, 2021) Kiev is not allowing a UN humanitarian convoy that delivered aid to the self-proclaimed Republic of Luhansk back into Ukraine's territory, the Luhansk representative to the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Olga Kobtseva, said on Wednesday.

Last week, the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group said that Luhansk did not allow the UN humanitarian convoy into their territory through the Luhansk-Shchastya checkpoint. Kobtseva refuted the delegation's claim, saying that it aims at undermining the implementation of agreements on checkpoints' opening. The convoy arrived on Monday.

"Ukraine is not allowing empty trucks that have delivered UNHCR humanitarian cargo to Luhansk to enter its territory," Kobtseva said in a statement posted by the Luhansk delegation to the contact group on Telegram.

The official added that the convoy of 11 trucks was stuck near the Ukrainian border at the still non-operating Luhansk-Shchastya checkpoint.

"Pretending to be a fierce guardian of international law, Kiev continues to show obvious destructiveness even in the matter of fulfilling obligations to international missions," Kobtseva added.

On November 10, the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service said that all border checkpoints located on the contact line in the Donetsk region were reopened, with two new border checkpoints in settlements of Shchastya and Zolote becoming operational. Luhansk called the unilateral opening of the checkpoints provocation claiming that they remain non-operational to this day.

In 2015, Ukraine implemented border control with the unrecognized republics of Luhansk and Donetsk, which declared their independence in 2014.