The convoy with food products from Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center is in Donetsk – after 15 days and 9 attempts

On June 18, in the afternoon, the convoy with food products from Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center arrived at logistic centre in Donbas Arena stadium.  It took the convoy 9 attempts to cross the contact line.  31 heavy-duty trucks delivered 620 tons of food for Donbas civilians, who are staying in non-government-controlled areas.   

"This morning 10 trucks, that couldn't pass through customs inspection before the checkpoint was closed last night, joined the rest of the convoy. The full convoy, consisting of 31 trucks, arrived at Donbas Arena. All together it took the convoy over two days to arrive in Donetsk, including the overnight in Artemivsk. It took a lot of time to enter passport data of all the convoy drivers into the checkpoint's database according to the new order of the Security Service of Ukraine. And we have been inspected in the general queue. When passing through this checkpoint, the total distance increases by 100 kilometres. In such conditions we are violating the intensity of aid deliveries and cannot provide people with food products on time", - Oleksandr Vyshniakov, the Head of "Humanitarian Aid" direction at Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center, commented.

The convoy passed through the customs and all checkpoints on the route with all the required permits and full package of documents, proving the quality of products. They also had the order of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine on recognition of this cargo as humanitarian. 

It bears reminding that during 15 days, due to the closed checkpoints in "B" sector and denied access for the convoy on June 13 by representatives of "Patriot" battalion at the same checkpoint near Artemivsk, Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center couldn't deliver food to the most vulnerable categories of civilians across the contact line. During this whole period the convoy was staying in Kurakhove and waiting for "B" sector checkpoints to open.

Over two weeks the lag from the planned supplies schedule made over 200,000 survival kits for adults and more than 20,000 children packages. As of today, 25 out of 30 Humanitarian Center's issuing points in Donetsk and Luhansk regions across the contact line are closed due to the lack survival kit stocks in Donetsk.

Today the volunteers of Shakhtar Football Club will start unloading the convoy at Donbas Arena and by Monday 40,000 adult survival kits will be formed, which will allow to resume the operation of Humanitarian Center's issuing points in non-government-controlled areas.   

On June 14 Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center appealed with a proposal to develop and accept clear, transparent, and devoid of policy rules and procedures for delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid in Donbas. "The Humanitarian Center is asking for a corridor again, and Volnovakha checkpoint will be the best place for it, – Rimma Fil, Coordinator of Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center, said during the press briefing today. – We appeal to all international organizations, who are having the same difficulties with humanitarian aid delivery. We forwarded this statement to all the possible authorities, where we request our humanitarian aid to reach civilians, because we are sure that people cannot be left in trouble".

According to the United Nations, there are 3.2 million people living across the contact line, most of them are experiencing significant problems with access to food.