A column of Russian armored personnel carriers (APCs) has reportedly crossed Russia’s border with Ukraine. The APCs had earlier been seen traveling alongside a supposed Russian humanitarian convoy headed towards Ukraine’s conflict-torn east.
The Guardian’s Moscow correspondent, Shaun Walker, and The Telegraph’s Roland Oliphant witnessed the APC convoy cross over the border alongside other military vehicles bearing official Russian military plates.
So @RolandOliphant and I just saw a column of APCs and vehicles with official Russian military plates cross border into Ukraine.
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) August 14, 2014
Erm ok so this isn't humanitarian aid. Column of over 20 APCs, 10km from the Ukraine border, and heading closer pic.twitter.com/OMvJmHzsx1
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) August 14, 2014
The APCs had been traveling alongside a humanitarian aid convoy of unmarked white trucks that Vladimir Putin’s government was sending to Ukraine. Military vehicles started traveling alongside the convoy earlier on Thursday.
Most of the fleet of more than 262 vehicles within the humanitarian convoy, including about 200 trucks carrying aid, stopped 15 miles from the border of Ukraine’s rebel-held eastern region of Luhansk. The convoy had been planned to go through a Ukrainian-held border crossing by the city of Kharkhiv, but it unexpectedly changed course and instead stopped by the separatist-held Izvaryne border crossing.
Jeremy Bender/Google Maps
The Izvaryne crossing is likely the site that the Russians used to transport the BUK missile system into Ukraine that had been used to down MH17 in July. After the humanitarian convoy stopped by the border crossing, the fleet of APCs continued into Ukraine.
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