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© RIA Novosti. Maxim BlinovUkrainian children, playing at a refugee camp in the Rostov area
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is ready to help Russian human rights advocates to set up a humanitarian corridor which would allow the safe transit of sick children from Ukraine, Raisa Lukutsova, the head of the Russian Red Cross, said Wednesday.

"They said that they are studying this issue and will do everything possible to resolve it. It's not easy. It depends not only on the Red Cross, which has such mandate but of course it depends on authorities' response," Lukutsova said.

The Russian Red Cross is not alone in its efforts to facilitate the opening of a humanitarian corridor in Ukraine. Russian Human Rights Commissioner Ella Pamfilova and number of Russian human rights organizations have made the same appeals to the EU, the OSCE, Kiev authorities and people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The ICRC has a mandate from the Geneva Conventions to protect victims of international and internal armed conflicts so it can pressure Kiev authorities to resolve the growing humanitarian crisis in eastern Ukraine.

On Tuesday, Russia called for an emergency UN Security Council session on the humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine, hit by Kiev's military crackdown on independence supporters. Russia's Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said Moscow seeks full transparency and suggested sending humanitarian convoys to eastern Ukraine that will be protected and sponsored by the Red Cross.

At the same meeting, UN humanitarian official John Ging said that at least 1,367 people have been killed by fighting in the eastern Ukraine since mid-April. He added that the humanitarian situation there is deteriorating.