Deaths in east Ukraine double (UN). Russian convoy rolls on to border as Kiev vows to block it.

The number of people killed in conflict-hit  eastern Ukraine has nearly doubled in two weeks to 2,086, including at least 20 children, the UN human rights agency said Wednesday.

The toll, as of August 10, compared with 1,129 deaths counted on July 26 and should be considered "very conservative," the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said.

The announcement comes as a convoy of nearly 300 trucks carrying what Russia says is humanitarian aid for victims of fighting in eastern Ukraine moved slowly toward the border on Wednesday.

But Kiev again insisted it would not allow the convoy on its territory.

"No humanitarian convoy of Putin's will be allowed to cross the territory of the Kharkiv region," Ukraine's interior minister Arsen Avakov wrote on Facebook. "Provocation by the cynical aggressor will not be permitted on our territory."

Around 280 trucks are carrying more than 1,800 tonnes of "humanitarian supplies," including medical equipment, baby food, sleeping bags, and electric generators, according to Russian media.

President Vladimir Putin has justified sending the aid due to the "catastrophic" situation in the besieged rebel strongholds of Lugansk and Donetsk, where officials have warned of a looming humanitarian disaster because of shortages of food, water and power.

But there are concerns by Kiev and the West that Moscow could use the operation as a cover for sending in troops.

Russian media said the shipment had passed through the city of Voronezh on Wednesday, which would put it less than 300 kilometers from the border crossing at Shebekino.

A Rossiya TV report from Voronezh said the convoy had over 500 kilometers to travel, and would arrive at the border only in the evening.

"It's a long drive and a bit tough, but how can we not help our Slav brothers," one of the drivers of the white trucks said.

Kiev has said the trucks would be stopped at the border for any aid to be unloaded and transported into conflict-torn eastern Ukraine with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that an agreement had been reached for the trucks to be inspected by Ukrainian authorities before continuing on with ICRC and Ukrainian representatives on board. But Ukraine, which has accused Moscow of supplying the pro-Russian separatists with weapons, said no final agreement had been reached with the Red Cross.Sources: AFP - globaltimes.cn
13/8/14
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Related:

• Arsen Avakov called the convoy a "provocation by the cynical aggressor." Russia says the nearly 300 trucks that left Moscow Tuesday are carrying hundreds of tons of aid to civilians in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.

• Russian aid convoy sits and waits...

• Moscow slams Australian accusations of Russia’s responsibility for Ukrainian crisis

MOSCOW, August 13. /ITAR-TASS/. The Russian Foreign Ministry slammed in its statement on Wednesday Australian authorities’ accusations that Russia was responsible for the ongoing “tragic events in Ukrain, including the crash of the Malaysian passenger jet” as unacceptable and ungrounded.
“On the whole, It seems that burdened by their own oversized ambitions, some members of the current Australian government have completely lost an adequate picture of the developments in Ukraine and around it,” the statement said. “They keep making absurd statements that the humanitarian convoy to help civilians in the south-east of Ukraine can be used as a pretext for Russia’s ‘armed invasion’ of the neighbouring country,” the ministry said.
“Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has gone farther than others in making irresponsible innuendoes against our country even though one would think that her position presupposes building bridges between countries, not destroying them,” the ministry said....................................http://www.ellanodikis.net/2014/08/moscow-slams-australian-accusations-of.html
13/8/14