Highly dubious report from ITAR-TASS. Particularly given that the ICRC has admitted it has no idea what is in those Russian trucks, we'll regard it as Russian wishful thinking in the absence of confirmation from the Ukrainian side and the ICRC:
SOCHI, August 12. /ITAR-TASS/. Moscow has agreed with all of Kiev’s suggestions regarding the humanitarian mission to the south-east of Ukraine and corrected the convoy route, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.
“We have agreed to the route that is comfortable to the Kiev authorities. We have agreed to have Ukrainian license plates on our trucks during their movement in Ukraine,” he said.
“We have agreed to take on not only representatives of the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] and the OSCE [Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe] aboard the trucks but also representatives of the Ukrainian authorities,” the minister said.
Another look at how the Ukrainian military sees the current situation on the ground in eastern Ukraine:
So police in the Russian capital intervened after all, according to our Russian Service, detaining about 15 of those who turned out for a rally to commemorate those who've been killed in the Ukraine fighting and show their opposition to war.
Following the convoy:
Here's the area he's referring to, with Tula top-right, Voronezh bottom-right, and the Ukrainian border there to the bottom on the left:
Our Russian Service reports that around 100 people turned up for an antiwar rally at Moscow's Pushin Square that was also a commemoration for those who've lost their lives in the Ukraine conflict. Our correspondent says some people with St. George ribbons turned up -- veterans' symbols that became highly politicized in connection with the Ukrainian unrest -- but that police did not intervene at any point.
Big news on the aid convoy. Update from our news desk:
Russia's Foreign Ministry says a humanitarian convoy which is heading to eastern Ukraine from Russia would cross the border only "under the aegis of the International Committee of the Red Cross."
Russian officials said on August 12 that a convoy of 280 vehicles carrying some 2,000 tons of aid -- from baby food to sleeping bags -- headed from Moscow to Ukraine.
Ukraine's military said the aid would have to be unloaded from the Russian trucks and transferred by the Red Cross to other vehicles if it is to be allowed in.
The ICRC earlier on August 12 said it had no information on what the Russian trucks were carrying or where they were going.
Ukrainian and Western officials have voiced concerns that Russia could use the pretext of humanitarian aid to send troops into eastern Ukraine where government forces are fighting pro-Russian separatists.