From RFE/RL's News Desk:
Germany’s Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development says it has sent a humanitarian aid convoy of more than 100 trucks to war-torn eastern Ukraine.
Economic Cooperation Minister Gerd Mueller said in a statement that the convoy is due to arrive in eastern Ukraine in mid-October.
He said the convoy is transporting mobile homes, field kitchens, radiators, electrical power generators, water and fuel tanks, winter clothing, bedding, camp beds, and hygiene kits.
Mueller said the humanitarian aid is estimated to be worth about $12 million and is meant “to send a signal of solidarity” that the people of Ukraine can count on Germany “as a reliable partner.”
The convoy is being accompanied by Polish police and fire services. It is due to cross from Poland into Ukraine early on October 7.
From the German news agency dpa:
In Mariupol, a port city 115 kilometers south of Donetsk, Russia and international monitors began work on Saturday determining the borders of a 30-kilometer buffer zone on the front line.
"The route of the mission is not being released for security
reasons," city spokesman Dmitri Gorbunov said.
The mission involving the two countries and the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was agreed on in September along with the cease-fire.
The warring parties are to withdraw heavy weapons and high-caliber artillery out of the buffer zone, according to the agreement.
The OSCE is to monitor compliance with the help of drones.
From Interfax:
Activists on Saturday pulled a Ukrainian folk shirt of a huge size over a statue of Vladimir Lenin in Zaporizhzhya in a bid to prevent the 20-meter-high monument from being pulled down by nationalist rioters and thereby stop potential violent attacks on them from admirers of the Bolshevik leader.
A crane was used to pull the white embroidered shirt over the statue. The sides of the marble pedestal were adorned with a traditional ornamental pattern.
"It's not for the sake of any reaction that I was doing this -- I'm not running for any elected office," one of the authors of the project, journalist Yury Hudymenko, told Interfax. "There's only one kind of reaction that I expect: to stop this monument from being pulled down at this specific moment. That is the only result I'm pressing for. If the authorities want to listen to my recommendations and put up a plaque there listing Lenin's crimes against the Ukrainian people, I would probably be satisfied," he said.
The authors of the project want a legal decision on the future of the monument by the local authorities.
Here is today's situation map of eastern Ukraine by the National Security and Defense Council:
Just in from Reuters:
Pro-Russian separatists have suffered their worst casualties since a cease-fire officially began on Sept. 5, losing 12 men in attacks on buildings at Donetsk airport, Ukrainian military officials said on Saturday.
The cease-fire in eastern Ukraine has become increasingly frayed in recent days, leading to the death of a number of civilians and soldiers as well as a Red Cross worker in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.
"The airport of Donetsk remains the priority target for terrorists. Yesterday they resorted to a few, fortunately unsuccessful, attempts to storm it," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists.
"Twelve [separatists] were killed during the attacks and that is the biggest single loss among rebels since Sept. 5," he added.
Lysenko said that two Ukrainian servicemen were killed during the past 24 hours, but he gave no further details.
Ukrainian officials accused Russian forces on Friday of helping separatists to step up pressure on government troops holding the airport in Donetsk, threatening a fragile cease-fire.
The latest UN estimate is that more than 3,500 people have died in the conflict which erupted after pro-Western leaders took power in Kyiv following street protests that chased Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich from power.