Russia to submit UN Security Council draft resolution on Ukraine 'aid corridor': Lavrov

MOSCOW - Agence France-Presse

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a news conference after a meeting with his Mauritanian counterpart Ahmed Teguedi in Moscow, June 2, 2014. REUTERS Photo

Russia will on Monday submit a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council on creating a corridor to allow Ukrainians to escape areas affected by fighting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
      
"Russia today plans to submit a draft resolution to the UN Security Council," Lavrov said at a televised news conference.
      
"In the draft resolution will be demands to immediately create an aid corridor along which peaceful citizens can leave the regions where military activity is happening if they want."        

"We want the Security Council to demand that no obstacles are put up to prevent the peaceful population from leaving the zones of military operations or to prevent the delivery of humanitarian aid to these zones," Lavrov said.
      
The resolution calls for "every assistance to the activities of the International Red Cross and other international humanitarian organisations in southeastern Ukraine," Lavrov added.
      
Russia's top diplomat said that the draft resolution was deliberately "depoliticised" and aimed at "taking measures that will allow the immediate easing of the suffering of the peaceful population." 

"We hope that the humanitarian direction of our initiative will be correctly received by the UN Security Council and the resolution will be taken up and acted upon immediately," Lavrov said.