LONDON, December 24. /TASS/. Humanitarian disaster looms in eastern Ukraine as pro-Kiev volunteer battalions are increasingly blocking humanitarian aid into eastern Ukraine, Amnesty International reported on Wednesday.

“As winter sets in, the already desperate situation in eastern Ukraine is being made even worse by the volunteer battalions preventing food aid and medicine from reaching those in need, said Denis Krivosheev, acting Director of Europe and Central Asia for Amnesty International. “It is no secret that the region is facing a humanitarian disaster with many already at risk of starvation,” he said.

“These battalions often act like renegade gangs and urgently need to be brought under control. Denying food to people caught up in a conflict is against international law and the perpetrators must be held to account,” the statement said

Amnesty International reports having received information that pro-Kiev battalions, including Dnipro-1 and Aidar, have blocked aid for the embattled Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

It once again urged the Ukrainian authorities “to reign in the volunteer battalions and to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches those who desperately need it”.

Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people whose aim is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated.