Merkel holds crisis talks in Kiev as controversial Russian aid convoy pulls out

Hundreds of trucks from a bitterly disputed Russian aid convoy to rebel-held eastern Ukraine rolled back across the border into Russia yesterday but questions about alleged Russian artillery in Ukraine still remained.

The move came as visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev and urged a political solution to the crisis.

On Friday, Nato said it had mounting evidence that Russian troops were operating inside Ukraine and launching artillery attacks at Ukrainian troops from Ukrainian soil as well as from Russia. Moscow rejects the claim.

Paul Picard, head of the border observation mission for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said from Donetsk that all 227 Russian vehicles that had crossed into Ukraine had returned to Russia yesterday. It remained unclear what the convoy had actually delivered, since it only arrived late on Friday afternoon.

Journalists said it appeared that some of the trucks were not fully loaded.

Russia said the trucks carried only food, water, generators and sleeping bags to the hard-hit rebel stronghold of Luhansk.