Germany Pledges Aid for Ukraine as Russia Hails a Returning Convoy

MOSCOW - The huge convoy of Russian trucks that entered war-torn eastern Ukraine on Friday, sharply escalating tensions, returned to Russian on Saturday after unloading food and medicine in the city of Luhansk, and the Russian government quickly declared its satisfaction with the operation.

Russia's decision to send the convoy across the border without an escort by the International Red Cross or final clearance from the Ukrainian government in Kiev, had drawn harsh criticism. President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine called it a 'flagrant violation of international law.' Another senior Ukrainian official denounced it as a 'direct invasion.' And NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasumussen in a statement condemning the convoy's entry, said it coincided with a 'major escalation in Russian military involvement in eastern Ukraine.'

The convoy's swift return suggested that at least for a moment the government of President Valdimir V. Putin of Russia had scored a public relations victory.

Russian television stations, largely controlled by the government, had carried constant coverage of the convoy crossing the border on Friday, after the Russian Foreign Ministry declared the humanitarian crisis in eastern Ukraine so grave that it could no longer tolerate what it described as stalling by the Ukrainian government and the International Committee of the Red Cross, which had agreed to oversee the convoy.

For weeks, Kiev and its allies, including the United States and major European countries, had raised suspicions about Russia's plans to deliver humanitarian aid, fearing that the trucks could be used to carry weapons and other supplies to pro-Russian militants who seem to be on the verge of defeat in their fight against the Ukrainian government.

There were also concerns that Russia would use the trucks to slow the Ukrainian government's military operations in Luhansk, essentially to shield rebels as they regrouped and rearmed.

By swiftly returning the trucks to Russia, the Kremlin seemed to seize an opportunity to make its detractors in Kiev and the West appear alarmist, and the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the goals all along had been strictly humanitarian. 'We are satisfied that the Russian humanitarian aid for southeast Ukraine was delivered to the destination,' the Foreign Ministry said. 'We were guided in this exclusively by the goal of helping needy civilians.'

The statement added that Russia intended to work with the Red Cross to deliver the assistance. The hasty unloading of the more than 260 trucks also seemed to confirm that many of them had been nearly empty. Journalists who were allowed to look inside some trucks had seen that many were only partially filled.

The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine's inspections of an initial group of trucks found that most of them carried foodstuffs, including buckwheat, rice, sugar and water, and that some bore medical supplies.

The Red Cross said on Friday that fighting in eastern Ukraine made it too dangerous for the convoy to cross the border and deliver the aid. The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the humanitarian crisis was worsening and it could no longer wait.

Military experts say that there is no doubt that Russia could invade Ukraine - with tanks not cargo trucks - on extremely short notice and that the West could do little about it.

The loud criticism from Kiev and the West, however, seemed to provide the Kremlin with an easy opportunity to portray its critics as shrill and unreliable, while pushing back on hard-line Russian nationalists who have criticized Mr. Putin and his government for not doing more to help pro-Russian militants.

The Obama administration on Friday had also sharply criticized Russia's unilateral decision to send the convoy across the border, which it said was 'in violation of its previous commitments and international law.'

'Russian military vehicles painted to look like civilian trucks forced their way into Ukraine,' said a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, Caitlin Hayden.

In her statement, Ms. Hayden said that only a small number of vehicles were inspected by Ukrainian customs officials and that there was no way to know the contents of the entire convoy. The Ukrainian government complained that its customs agents sent to a border crossing to inspect the trucks had been blocked as Russia sent the convoy through.

The return of the trucks to Russia came as Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany arrived in Kiev to visit Ukrainian leaders.