I think everyone is wary about this convoy, so why the West and Ukraine agree to it. Face-saver for Putin? What kind of face-saver is that?
— Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin) August 12, 2014
Chances that these Kamaz trucks will take Bolotov and possibly Girkin fighters to Russia on the way back - one to ten anybody?
— Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin) August 12, 2014
Here's an update from our news desk on the Russian aid convoy:
A Russian convoy of up to 280 trucks carrying humanitarian aid left for Ukraine on August 12.
Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma said the Russian cargo would be escorted by representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCWE) through northeastern Ukraine to the city of Luhansk.
Russia says the aid consists of food, medicine, medical equipment, sleeping bags, and portable power generators.
But the Red Cross, which is due to coordinate the operation, said it had no information on what the trucks were carrying or where they were going.
Ukraine said it had agreed to a humanitarian mission to the separatist stronghold of Luhansk that includes cooperation from the European Union, Germany, Russia, and others, and is led by the Red Cross.
It insisted that any humanitarian mission must be without a Russian military escort.
(ITAR-TASS, Interfax)
In case you missed it, the FT published an interesting piece yesterday on how Vladimir Putin may have underestimated Angela Merkel vis-a-vis sanctions:
When the 28 EU member states agreed to impose tougher sanctions on Russia last month because of Moscow’s support for armed separatists in the Ukrainian civil war, the decision was greeted with shock in the Kremlin. Mr Putin had expected the German chancellor to resist taking any action that would seriously affect German exporters.
He was wrong. The sanctions package was driven by Berlin. Central to German policy, led Ms Merkel and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, foreign minister, was determination to maintain a united European front.
“Putin is an old-style KGB operator. He sees everything as a zero-sum game. He keeps different options open and tries to divide the EU and the west through bilateral contacts and sectoral contacts with business,” says Andreas Schockenhoff, deputy chairman of Ms Merkel’s Christian Democrats in the German Bundestag.
“The chancellor spent a huge amount of time and energy to get a united European position and bring business on board.”
Mr Putin is not the first global leader to misread Ms Merkel. David Cameron, UK prime minister, did the same when he sought her backing to block the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg as the next EU commission president. But Mr Putin’s miscalculation is potentially far more serious.
His actions in Ukraine, since the Russian annexation of Crimea in March, have alienated the one European leader capable of finding a diplomatic solution. He dug himself into a hole without an exit strategy.
Yet the signals from Berlin have been there for months. Ever since Mr Putin’s return to power as president in 2012, Ms Merkel has shown her unhappiness at the authoritarian and nationalist drift in the Kremlin. She was appalled by Russia’s seizure of Crimea, unilaterally altering an agreed international border.
She finally lost trust in Mr Putin, according to senior officials, because she believed he lied to her repeatedly (they have had more than 30 telephone calls) about Russia’s involvement and its willingness to restrain the separatists. Trust matters a lot to the chancellor.
Ms Merkel took the lead over EU sanctions reluctantly. Her instinct to seek a peaceful solution saw her pilloried in Kiev, London and Washington as a Moscow sympathiser. But she was always clear that Russia must compromise or face consequences.
Read the entire article here
According to this Interfax-Ukraine tweet, a list has now been published of the Donetsk policemen "traitors" who defected to the DNR
Геращенко обнародовал список предателей и приспособленцев из числа милиционеров Донецка, которые перешли на сторону "ДНР" ...
— Интерфакс-Украина (@interfaxua) August 12, 2014
Kiev cuts rebels in Gorlovka off from Donetsk as Russ "humanitarian convoy" rushes to Ukraine w/o RedCross permission. The stakes are rising
— Alec Luhn (@ASLuhn) August 12, 2014
Ex president Kuchma to Interfax: Russian convoy will cross the border in #Kharkiv reg, head to #Lugansk, accompanied by ICRC, OSCE
— Olga Tokariuk (@olgatokariuk) August 12, 2014
Kharkiv mayor @GennadyKernes declares there will be no Kharkiv People's Republic under him http://t.co/83tNbQVylk pic.twitter.com/QnAYem2v1m
— Nikolaus von Twickel (@niktwick) August 12, 2014
Just to remind people that there are a few, who know beforehand what the Kremlin is up to: https://t.co/UKyCcrLrOI https://t.co/jP8zB26yAo
— Thomas C. Theiner (@noclador) August 12, 2014
So far Russia has sent weapons, tanks and fighters across border into Eastern Ukraine. And produced death, destruction and despair.
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) August 12, 2014