Photo: The Telegraph
The offices of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in the eastern part of Ukraine, under the Russian influence, have been closed down by pro-Russian rebels who accused it of spying and leaking information that meant essential to Russia.
Staff working for the aid organisation were detained with not allowing them to ask any further questions as their office in the rebel-controlled city of Donetsk was raided and searched by masked gunmen. Several employees were later put on a coach and departed to the capital city of Kiev.
The Russian Interfax news agency accused the IRC of concealing “eavesdropping equipment” in their Donetsk office. A spokesman for the same claimed that “foreigners regularly travelled to Ukraine, but not in order to accompany [the IRC on] humanitarian missions. Several further accusations were also placed upon the organisation.
IRC says its mission is to help people whose lives have been shattered by conflict and disaster, and says its humanitarian work in eastern Ukraine includes the provision of women’s hygiene and safety equipment. The deported staff are reported to be safe.
Heavily armed rebels have been fighting government forces for about a year in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The West accuses the nation of Russia of appointing rebels and sending in regular soldiers – an accusation echoed and seconded by independent experts. Moscow, meanwhile, insists that any Russian on the rebel side are volunteers and that it hadn’t forced any of them into the work.
