Lugansk, Ukraine: Thank you Russia! Please come back soon (with more humanitarian aid)!

© © RIA Novosti/Maksim Blinov

A wonderful sight for sore eyes; the first group of trucks, that have delivered humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine, return to Russia

Residents of Luhansk People's Republic hope to receive more

humanitarian aid

from Russia, Vice Prime Minister of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Luhansk Vasyl Nikitin told RIA Novosti.

"Our republic has almost no food provisions left," Nikitin said. "We hope such food and humanitarian convoys will become common. We hope for help and wait for it."

According to Nikitin, situation with food provision in Luhansk People's Republic is dire. Despite the harvest season, the food market was closed due to shell attacks and the ensuing fire.

The residents of the city are surviving on their own stocks.

Earlier today, Nikitin

said

the distribution of Russian humanitarian aid would start Saturday.

The first group of trucks, that delivered Russian humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine, have returned to Russian territory on Saturday. Now they are heading to the city of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Rostov Region, where the Russian humanitarian convoy was parked several days before its departure for Ukraine's eastern conflict zones

Russian customs

officers are inspecting the

second group of Russian trucks

now.

On August 14, the trucks with Russian humanitarian aid arrived at the border, but Ukraine began customs clearance only on August 21.

On Friday, Moscow

accused

Kiev of deliberately delaying the aid delivery. The same day, Russian convoy crossed the border and arrived in besieged Luhansk that was

struggling daily without regular food supplies, water and electricity

.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry described the convoy crossing the Russian border as a violation of international norms.

Moscow

reminded

that Russia received a formal agreement from Kiev authorities for the passage of the humanitarian convoy through the Ukrainian border on August 12.