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 The return of the trucks may help ease the tension to some extent
in time for talks in Ukraine's capital on Saturday between visiting
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian leaders over how to
end the crisis in the ex-Soviet republic.
Western leaders had joined Kiev in calling the Russian convoy --
about 220 white-painted trucks loaded with tinned food and bottle
water -- an illegal incursion onto Ukraine's soil, and demanded that
they be withdrawn as soon as possible.
A Reuters journalist at the Donetsk-Izvaryne border crossing, where
the convoy rolled into Ukraine on Friday, said over 100 trucks had
passed back into Russia and more could be seen in the distance
arriving at the crossing.
Russian state television had earlier broadcast footage of some of
the trucks being unloaded at a distribution depot in the city of
Luhansk, eastern Ukraine. The Russian foreign ministry said the aid
reached its intended destination.
The city is held by separatist rebels who are encircled by Ukrainian
government forces, and has been cut off from power and water
supplies for weeks. International aid agencies have warned of a
humanitarian crisis.
NATO said it had reports that Russian troops had been firing
artillery at Kiev's forces inside Ukraine - fuelling Western
allegations that the Kremlin is behind the conflict in an effort
undermine the Western-leaning leadership in Kiev.
"Since mid-August we have multiple reports of the direct involvement
of Russian forces, including airborne, air defence and special
operations forces in Eastern Ukraine," said NATO spokeswoman Oana
Lungescu.
"Russian artillery support – both cross border and from within
Ukraine – is being employed against the Ukrainian armed forces," she
said.
Russia denies giving any material help to the rebellion in eastern
Ukraine, a mainly Russian-speaking region. It accuses Kiev, with the
backing of the West, of waging a war against innocent civilians.
The conflict in Ukraine has dragged Russian-Western relations to
their lowest ebb since the Cold War and sparked a round of trade
sanctions that are hurting already-fragile economies in European and
Russia.
The German leader landed in Kiev and was scheduled to meet Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk.
Diplomats say she will show support for Kiev, but also urge
Poroshenko to be open to peace proposals when he meets Russian
President Vladimir Putin for talks next week.
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HOMES DESTROYED
In the rebels biggest stronghold, the city of Donetsk, there was
unusually intense shelling on Saturday. That may be part of a drive
by government forces to achieve a breakthrough in time for Ukrainian
Independence Day, which falls on Sunday.
The crisis over Ukraine started when mass protests in Kiev ousted a
president who was close to Moscow, and instead installed leaders
viewed with suspicion by the Kremlin.
Soon after that, Russia annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea, and
a separatist rebellion broke out in eastern Ukraine. In the past
weeks, the momentum has shifted towards Ukraine's forces, who have
been pushing back the rebels.
The separatist are now encircled in their two strongholds, Luhansk
and Donetsk.
Reuters reporters in the city of Donetsk said that most of the
shelling was taking place in the outskirts, but explosions were also
audible in the centre of the city.
In Donetsk's Leninsky district, a man who gave his name as Grigory,
said he was in the toilet on Saturday morning when he heard the
whistling sound of incoming artillery. "Then it hit. I came out and
half the building was gone."
The roof of the building had collapsed into a heap of debris.
Grigory said his 27-year-old daughter was taken to hospital with
injuries to her head. He picked up a picture of a baby from the
rubble. "This is my grandson," he said.
In another residential area, about 5 km north of the city centre, a
shop and several houses had been hit. Residents said two men,
civilians, were killed.
Praskoviya Grigoreva, 84, pointed to two puddles of blood on the
pavement near a bus stop that was destroyed in the same attack.
"He's dead. Death took him on this spot," she said.
(Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova and Tom Grove in Donetsk,
Ukraine, Adrian Croft in Brussels, Richard Balmforth and Natalia
Zinets in Kiev and Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow; Writing by
Christian Lowe; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
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