Friends and relatives say goodbye to volunteers before they were sent to the eastern part of Ukraine to join the ranks of special battalion “Azov” fighting against pro-Russian separatists, in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014. AP
MOSCOW — Russia’s foreign minister says he expects the extensive humanitarian aid mission for eastern Ukraine to enter the country in the near future.
Speaking at news conference in Berlin, where he met a day earlier with his counterparts from Ukraine, France and Germany, Sergey Lavrov said Monday that “all questions” regarding the mission had been removed and that agreement had been reached with Ukraine and the international Red Cross.
It was not clear if Lavrov was referring to security guarantees, which the Red Cross wants to receive from all sides, including eastern Ukraine’s separatist fighters, before accompanying the more than 200 trucks into Ukraine.
A Red Cross spokeswoman in the region where the trucks are parked told The Associated Press earlier Monday that they were still waiting for the security guarantees.
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