"Given the obvious protractions by Kiev on the issue of the delivery of Russian aid to southeast regions of Ukraine, which are suffering a humanitarian catastrophe, a decision was made on sending the convoy. Further delaying it would have been unacceptable," Putin told Merkel on Friday, the Kremlin's press service reported.
The Russian and German leaders also discussed possible steps to stop the fighting between the warring sides in Ukraine as soon as possible, and to establish a political dialogue.
Merkel and Putin voiced "serious concern" over the escalation of Kiev's military operation in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which is leading to new casualties among civilians, the press service said.
The phone call was initiated by Germany on the eve of Merkel's visit to Kiev on August 23.
Meanwhile, all the trucks in the Russian aid convoy have arrived in Lugansk and are currently being unloaded, the city administration confirmed to the media.
Later, a specially formed commission will distribute essential supplies of food, medicine and water among the population. Part of the Russian humanitarian aid may be send to the neighboring Donetsk region, which has also been heavily hit by the ongoing violence.
Actually, only part of the convoy made it to where it was supposed to go and only part of the aid was delivered. It was forced to return with most of the aid UNDELIVERED. No good deed goes unpunished. The western hawks showed once again their true faces. It seems to me that WW3 has already started. The west pushing for dominance
on 3 different fronts : Middle East, Africa and the ex-Soviet Union and the East (China and Russia) trying to resist without starting an actual WW. It will take a lot of diplomacy and carefully planned moves from the eastern dudes not to blow up the planet. In the mean time, the sheeple (at least in my country) are either on vacation or in front of their TV screens on a 24 hour basis wondering where all the money has gone. By intervening the ECT openly declared-in careful economic terms that nobody understands-that it will start stealing (!!!) again. This planet is sicker than you think. Sorry for the long post, I got carried away again but few people realize what the f**k
is going on this world.