What caused the ban on the delivery of humanitarian goods to Donbass

800 UN trucks with humanitarian aid for Donbass cannot enter the territory of the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Lugansk regions. This was stated by the OSCE representative in the contact group for a settlement in Ukraine, Martin Sajdik, recalling the ban on the activities of UN organizations in the territory of the DPR and LPR that has been in force for a month. The leadership of the republics explained to Kommersant that the problem is in incorrectly executed documents that were presented by UN structures. At the same time, Kommersant's sources close to the authorities of the DPR and LPR say that the main reason for banning the activities of a number of humanitarian organizations on the territory of the republics is “the presence of grounds to suspect their employees of espionage.” However, the DPR and LPR made it clear to Kommersant that UN structures will be able to resume work in the region.

Photo: Elena Gorbacheva, Kommersant / buy photo

Martin Sajdik, OSCE representative in the contact group for resolving the conflict in Donbass, told reporters about the situation around UN humanitarian cargo stuck on the border with the DPR and LPR. “16 thousand tons of humanitarian aid have been prepared - that’s about 800 trucks, but delivery cannot be carried out,” he complained. “This is not only about food, there are also construction materials and other cargo necessary to restore the region’s infrastructure.”

According to Martin Sajdik, the delivery of goods to the region is complicated for two reasons. Firstly, on the Ukrainian side there are too few checkpoints on the demarcation line. And secondly, and this is the main problem, UN agencies are prohibited from working on the territory of the DPR and LPR. The corresponding rule came into effect back in July: the authorities of the self-proclaimed republics obliged all organizations delivering humanitarian aid to the territories under their control to submit an application and receive accreditation in Donetsk and Lugansk. Those organizations that did not do this or did not receive accreditation have been deprived of access to the territory of the DPR and LPR since September 25.

Only the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Doctors Without Borders and People in Need were able to complete the registration procedure. Another 11 agencies that applied, including UN agencies, were denied accreditation.

Commenting on the decision of Donetsk and Lugansk, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Shimonovich said that obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid to Donbass “could be regarded as a crime against humanity.” The US authorities and representatives of the European Commission strongly demanded that UN agencies and other humanitarian organizations be given access to the region.

In Kyiv, Moscow is blamed for the current situation. “The self-proclaimed republics cannot accept humanitarian aid from outside without the consent of Russia. Moreover, they are not ready to accept cargo that comes to them from territories controlled by the Ukrainian authorities. If this aid were included in the Russian humanitarian convoy, they would, of course, agree “And so they respect Russia’s monopoly on the supply of humanitarian aid to them,” a source in the Ukrainian presidential administration told Kommersant yesterday.

Alexander Chernenko, a member of the Verkhovna Rada from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, took a similar position in a conversation with Kommersant: “The authorities of the so-called DPR and LPR want to show that only Russia can take care of the residents of Donbass. Moreover, if people in the so-called republics receive this humanitarian aid, these high-quality products, they may wonder - what was previously given to them under the guise of humanitarian aid? There is another important point: the receipt and distribution of this aid is controlled by the UN - which means that, unlike aid coming from Russia, it is it will not be possible to steal. And this circumstance clearly confuses the leaders of these so-called republics.”

In Moscow they take a completely different point of view. “The reason for the humanitarian crisis in the southeast of Ukraine is not the steps and measures taken by the DPR and LPR to streamline the activities of international humanitarian agencies, but the military operation and the trade and economic blockade by Kiev of areas not under its control,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said recently.

According to the Russian diplomat, the demands of Donetsk and Lugansk to register international humanitarian agencies “are related to the need to streamline their activities to ensure greater coordination and transparency of work on the ground, and to determine the range of humanitarian supplies taking into account the needs of the population.” “Local authorities are responsible for the safety of the personnel of such organizations and, from this point of view, must also keep records and organize their activities,” she added.

The official representative of the DPR Foreign Ministry, Konstantin Dolgov, explained to Kommersant yesterday that organizations that did not receive accreditation, including UN agencies, “submitted documents in an inappropriate form.” “In this regard, they can only make claims to themselves,” Kommersant’s interlocutor is convinced. According to him, the ICRC and other accredited structures “provided the necessary documents in a timely manner.” “The DPR Ministry of State Security did not raise any questions for them. Based on this, the interdepartmental committee for the accreditation of humanitarian missions of the republic voted to grant accreditation to these organizations, which are now fully cooperating with the DPR authorities,” he clarified.

Martin Sajdik, meanwhile, assured journalists that the UN had provided the authorities of the self-proclaimed republics with “all the necessary information.”

However, Kommersant's sources close to the leadership of the DPR and LPR say that in fact the problem is not in incorrectly executed documents. “We have serious reasons to suspect employees of UN agencies and a number of other structures posing as humanitarian agencies of espionage,” explained one of Kommersant’s interlocutors. According to the second source, "staff of UN-affiliated organizations, working on the ground in Donetsk and Lugansk, were actively interested in topics that are not usually of interest to humanitarian organizations." At the same time, representatives of a number of other organizations “posing as humanitarian”, the special services of the DPR and LPR, according to Kommersant’s interlocutor, are even suspected of adjusting fire in the interests of Ukrainian government forces.

A Kommersant source in UN structures recalled that various types of accusations are regularly brought against employees of humanitarian organizations of the UN system in hot and crisis spots. “This has been the case in recent months in South Sudan and other places. I dare to suggest that in many cases the parties to the conflict simply want to get rid of witnesses to what is happening,” the Kommersant interlocutor added. At the same time, he made a reservation that he does not claim that this is exactly the situation in Donetsk and Lugansk, since the UN “has no information on this matter.”

However, yesterday it became known that for the first time in three months, cargo was delivered to Donetsk through the UN World Food Program. And Konstantin Dolgov from the DPR Ministry of Foreign Affairs assured Kommersant that as soon as UN agencies and other humanitarian organizations provide Donetsk with the necessary documents, they will be considered “in a short time” by the accreditation committee. “The difficult humanitarian situation in the republic dictates the need to quickly resolve such issues,” explained Kommersant’s interlocutor.

The LPR made it clear to Kommersant that the issue of access of UN structures to the region is not closed. “We also have a special commission on accreditation, its meeting should take place tomorrow or Friday,” Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the LPR Vasily Nikitin explained to Kommersant. “There is no plan to ban the activities of UN structures on the territory of the LPR. In the coming days this issue must be resolved and they will continue to work."

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in Ukraine exceeds 5 million.

Ilya Barabanov, Maxim Yusin, Elena Chernenko; Yanina Sokolovskaya, Kyiv

The UN was expelled from the DPR and LPR