Human Rights Watch's director for Germany says ahead of tomorrow's trip to Ukraine by Angela Merkel:
Merkel’s visit is an opportunity for her to denounce violations of international humanitarian law by the Ukrainian military....
Neither side in this conflict has behaved towards civilians as they should. Merkel should not lose the opportunity to drive the point home to Kiev.
via @GKates
From Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's statement in English on the "flagrant violation of international law" when "a column of more than 100 vehicles" crossed illegally from Russia onto Ukrainian territory today:
The President informed that pursuant to his instruction, Foreign Minister Klimkin and Head of the Presidential Administration Borys Lozhkin had contacted their Russian counterparts, "expressed our concern and offered to return the situation in the framework of the international law".
He vows that "we will do everything possible to prevent more serious consequences." He also highlights that the International Committee of the Red Cross still had not gotten security guarantees from separatists: "The only factor that prevented the Red Cross from fulfilling the humanitarian mission was the shelling of the roads by terrorists on the way of the humanitarian assistance to Luhansk."
Liveuamap doing an excellent job of covering the route of the 145 or so Russian trucks that have crossed the border:
Ukraine's foreign minister says the ministry's website is under a denial-of-service attack and he points the finger, unsuprisingly, at Moscow: "Uninvited guests from Russia not only vehicles, but computers. There is a DDoS-attack on our website mfa.gov.uk Follow our tweets and FB"
Tweets regarding official statements from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry:
And:
Small but seemingly substantial bone to pick with this Interfax lead, which becomes clear with the second sentence. Neither the Ukrainian border service nor the Red Cross was given a chance to inspect all of these trucks, so they don't presume to know what all 145 of them are carrying. Such a detail is clearly unimportant to the Kremlin, but shouldn't Interfax and its journalists know better?
The Ukrainian State Border Service reports that 145 trucks carrying Russian humanitarian aid have crossed the Ukrainian border.
"One hundred and forty-five trucks have already crossed the border," the Border Service said, adding that Ukrainian border guards and customs officers were not admitted to clear the cargo.
Reuters flashes, citing Russian agency ITAR-TASS:
RUSSIA, UKRAINE PRESIDENTIAL CHIEFS OF STAFF AGREED ON NEED FOR SWIFT COMPLETION OF HUMANITARIAN CONVOY OPERATION-TASS CITES KREMLIN SPOKESMAN
RUSSIAN, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL CHIEFS OF STAFF SPOKE BY PHONE-TASS CITING KREMLIN SPOKESMAN
There are varying interpretations of statements from Belgrade regarding pressure from the European Union, which has urged aspiring member Serbia not to boost food exports to Russia to help offset import bans on Western food.
AP leads its story this way:
Despite pressure from the European Union, Serbia will not impose sanctions against Russia or curb its food exports to that country, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said Friday....
Vucic said his government will accept EU's demands not to additionally subsidize those exports to Russia, but will not prevent Serbian companies from making new deals. Serbian officials have said that they hope to increase the food and agricultural exports to Russia from the current $170 million (128 million euros) a year to $300 million (226 million euros).
Reuters this way:
Serbia said on Friday it would not encourage exports to Russia, after the European Union urged the Balkan country not to exploit the Kremlin's ban on Western food imports.