Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Watch Live

International

U.S. Delivers Humanitarian Aid To Georgia

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas, loaded with humanitarian aid for Georgia, docked at the country's Black Sea port of Batumi on Wednesday, steaming clear of another port where Russian troops were stationed.

Batumi is well south of Poti, where Moscow's troops battled Georgian forces earlier this month.

The U.S. embassy changed its version of events several times in the last 24 hours. At first, it announced Tuesday that its aid ship would dock Wednesday at Poti.

Advertisement

Then early Wednesday, the embassy said that plans had changed, and the ship would dock at Batumi. Later in the day, the U.S. Embassy retracted its earlier statement that an aid ship would dock in Poti. The spokesperson refused to be identified.

Moscow has criticized the U.S. for bringing humanitarian aid into Georgia on military ships.

The United States and European nations, led by France, have assailed Russia's recognition of two Georgian territories as separate nations.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on Tuesday recognized the regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states. Western leaders accused Russia of violating Georgia's territorial sovereignty.

From wire reports.

Advertisement

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.