UN agency resumes food delivery to non-government controlled parts of eastern Ukraine

The World Food Programme (WFP) on Wednesday delivered food to non-government controlled areas of Lugansk in eastern Ukraine for the first time since the suspension of humanitarian activities four months ago, a UN spokesman told reporters here Wednesday.

A 12-truck convoy reached Lugansk earlier this week, carrying enough WFP food supplies to feed more than 7,000 people for one month, Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman said at a daily news briefing here. "More convoys bringing food to Lugansk are planned, with the next one scheduled to arrive later this week."

The World Food Programme did not have access to non-government controlled areas since the end of July 2015.

The UN agency is seeking to provide food assistance to more than 100,000 people affected by the conflict in non-government controlled areas in both Lugansk and Donetsk regions by the end of 2015, Haq said.

In early October, the Ukrainian army has started withdrawing their heavy weapons from the frontline in the eastern Lugansk region, reports said.

Kiev and pro-independence insurgent forces, together with representatives of Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, reached an agreement last week to pull their tanks, mortars and artillery of less-than-100-millimeter caliber 15 kilometers away from the contact line to ensure ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. The ceasefire was established on Sept. 1.

Rebels in Lugansk region started their withdrawal on Oct. 3, while insurgents in the neighboring Donetsk region started the pullback on Oct.18.

Sources: XINHUA