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- Ukraine recognizes Russian cargo as humanitarian aid, but delay likely in delivery of goods
- Ukraine says it destroyed part of Russian military convoy that crossed border
- British media outlets report they saw military vehicles cross from Russia into Ukraine
Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- One month after Malaysia Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine, government military forces there said they've made advances Sunday against pro-Russian separatists.
Ukrainian forces regained control over the strategic town of Yasynuvata in Donetsk in the southeastern part of the country, according to the official Twitter account of President Petro Poroshenko. They've also made gains in Luhansk in the eastern part of Ukraine, government forces told CNN. The Ukrainian army has entered Donetsk and raised the Ukrainian flag in front of the district's police offices, said National Defense and Security Council spokesman Col. Andriy Lysenko.
Yet the site of crash MH17 is still unsafe as fighting near it rages, officials tell CNN.
Most investigators left Kiev this week but small teams from several countries remain in Ukraine on standby. For now, the search is officially suspended.
Trucks of a Russian humanitarian convoy are parked in a field outside the town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky in Rostov region of Russia, about 20 miles from the Ukraine border, on Friday, August 15, 2014. Ukrainian officials were preparing to inspect the convoy bound for the conflict-torn east on Friday. For months, Ukrainian government forces have been fighting pro-Russian separatists near the Russia border. The fighting has left more than 2,000 people dead since mid-April, according to "conservative" estimates from United Nations officials.
A truck driver from the convoy jumps out of a trailer in a field outside the town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Russia, on August 15. The Ukrainian government had expressed fears that the convoy was a large-scale effort to smuggle supplies or troops to pro-Russian rebels -- something it accuses Russia of doing regularly in perhaps smaller deliveries.
A 122mm self-propelled howitzer belonging to pro-Russian rebels moves along a street in Donetsk, Ukraine, on August 15. Donetsk has been the scene of intense shelling for days as rebels try to hold off Ukrainian forces.
A Ukrainian soldier walks past a line of self-propelled guns as a column of military vehicles prepares to head to the front line near Illovaisk, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, on Thursday, August 14. Ukrainian forces have stepped up efforts to dislodge the separatists from their last strongholds in Donetsk and Luhansk.
A Ukrainian government soldier prepares a mortar at a position behind a front line near Illovaisk on August 14.
A man inspects damage at his house after a shelling in Donetsk on Thursday, August 14.
A convoy of trucks with humanitarian aid moves from Voronezh, Russia, toward Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on August 14. Russia dispatched the trucks to deliver aid to a rebel-held zone in eastern Ukraine. Many in Ukraine and elsewhere fear that the humanitarian mission is actually an attempt to smuggle supplies to pro-Russian rebels.
Pro-Russian rebels on the outskirts of Donetsk stand at a checkpoint near a bullet-riddled bus on Wednesday, August 13.
A pro-Russian rebel inspects damage after shelling in Donetsk on Thursday, August 7.
Smoke billows from a Ukrainian fighter jet crash near the village of Zhdanivka, Ukraine, on August 7.
Residents of eastern Ukraine cry in a hospital basement being used as a bomb shelter August 7 in Donetsk.
Ordnance from a Ukrainian rocket launcher shoots toward a pro-Russian militant position in the Donetsk region on August 7.
Relatives of Ukrainian military member Kyril Andrienko, who died in combat in eastern Ukraine, gather during his funeral in Lviv, Ukraine, on August 7.
Refugees from southeastern Ukraine wait at a refugee camp in Donetsk on Wednesday, August 6.
A pro-Russian rebel adjusts his weapon in Donetsk on August 6.
Men walk past a bomb crater in Donetsk on August 6.
A man steps out of his car as Ukrainian soldiers inspect the vehicle at a checkpoint in Debaltseve, Ukraine, on August 6.
Ukrainian servicemen sit on a bus near Slovyansk, Ukraine, on Tuesday, August 5.
A pro-Russian separatist guards a road as Australian, Malaysian and Dutch investigators prepare to examine the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 near the village of Rossipne, Ukraine, on August 5. U.S. and Ukrainian officials allege that a Russian-made missile shot down the plane from rebel-held territory, killing all 298 people on board. Russia and the rebel fighters deny involvement.
Rescue workers carry the body of a woman who was killed during a bomb shelling in Donetsk on August 5.
A boy stands in a hallway of a refugee hostel run by pro-Russian rebels in Donetsk on Monday, August 4.
Ukrainian servicemen from the Donbass volunteer battalion clean their guns Sunday, August 3, in Popasna, Ukraine.
Ukrainian soldiers fire shells toward rebel positions near Pervomaysk, Ukraine, on Saturday, August 2.
Ukrainian troops patrol near the village of Novoselovka, Ukraine, on Thursday, July 31.
A woman says goodbye to her mother as she flees her home in Shakhtersk, Ukraine, on Tuesday, July 29. See more photos of the crisis from earlier this year
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Photos: Crisis in Ukraine
<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Map: Location of Russian convoy
Map: Location of Russian convoy
Convoy: Humanitarian aid or Trojan horse
All 298 people on the Boeing 777 were killed when it crashed near the Russian border in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian and U.S. officials have alleged that a Russian-made missile system was responsible for shooting the aircraft down. The separatists and Russians deny that.
And while hopes diminish for answers about MH17, thousands of people in the region have no access to water, electricity and proper medical aid, humanitarian agencies have said.
Ukrainian officials acknowledged Sunday that a convoy of more than 260 Russian vehicles on the border is, in fact, carrying humanitarian aid, a statement on the Ukrainian Cabinet website said.
The convoy initially sparked fears that Russia was trying to use a humanitarian convoy as a cover for sending in more aid and weapons for pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Aid delay likely
But there could be a hold up on the delivery of that aid.
Ukraine received an inventory of the supplies Saturday, which was signed by the head of the regional International Committee of the Red Cross delegation to Russia.
Pascal Cuttat says there are still "basic technical details" that need to be discussed.
The convoy's inspection will not happen Sunday, said Victoria Zotikova, a spokeswoman for the ICRC.
Zotikova added that the aid agency is missing security guarantees from all sides.
Moscow says the trucks contain grain, sugar, baby food, medical supplies and sleeping bags -- a claim that Kiev initially doubted.
The Ukrainian recognized governor of Luhansk, Irina Verigina, said this week that she doesn't want aid from Russia.
Ukraine says it is distributing its own aid through the Red Cross.
Ukraine suspicious of Russian convoy
Ukraine turns back Russian convoy
"They send us tanks and Grads (rocket-launching vehicles) overnight and offer to send humanitarian aid by day," Verigina said.
Ukraine: We destroyed most of a Russian convoy
Ukraine claims its artillery destroyed much of a military convoy that crossed from Russia into Ukraine last week, an incursion that two British newspaper journalists say they witnessed.
If true, Ukraine's account and the British reports appear to give credence to what Kiev has long alleged -- that Russia has been sending troops and arms into eastern Ukraine.
A diplomatic row was brewing Friday over the reports, with the United Kingdom's foreign office summoning Russia's ambassador in London to explain the incident.
Russia's foreign ministry has denied any such incursion, and its foreign minister will meet in Berlin with his counterparts from Ukraine, Germany and France on Sunday, state-run news agency RIA-Novosti reported. The meeting's agenda wasn't immediately released.
Those concerns took on a new light when British media outlets The Guardian and The Telegraph reported that armored personnel carriers, along with other vehicles with Russian military plates, crossed the border near Donetsk.
The Guardian reported that it witnessed 23 armored personnel carriers, in addition to other vehicles with Russian military plates, cross into Ukraine through a gap in a barbed wire fence. "Armed men were visible in the gloom by the border fence as the column moved into Ukraine," the Guardian report reads.
This is the first time foreign media recorded such an incursion, though it illustrates what Kiev has said has been happening for months -- that Russia has been sending troops and equipment to help the rebels, said Lysenko.
Poroshenko told British Prime Minister David Cameron that Ukrainian forces destroyed "the majority" of the Russian vehicles, Poroshenko's office said.
Poroshenko "expressed concern over the situation on the border, particularly over the fact that the inflow of Russian arms and military machines in Ukraine through the open part of the border continued," his office said.
Lysenko said he didn't know exactly how many vehicles crossed the border, or how many Ukraine's artillery managed to destroy.
Battle rages on
A Ukrainian fighter jet was shot down on Sunday in the Luhansk region, Leonid Matyuhin, the spokesman for Ukraine's counter-terrorist operation, told CNN. The pilot managed to eject and is safe, Ukrainian state media reported.
The ongoing fighting -- sparked last year with by political crisis over whether Ukraine would seek closer ties with Europe or Russia -- has left more than 2,000 people dead and just under 5,000 wounded in eastern Ukraine since mid-April, according to estimates from U.N. officials.
The United States and the European Union have applied steadily increasing sanctions against Russian officials, banks and other interests since March, when Russia annexed the Black Sea Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. Russia's move came a month after Ukraine's parliament ousted pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych.
Yanukovych left office after violent protests against his government in the capital, Kiev. Those protests were motivated in part by his decision to back out of a trade deal with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia.
Aid or invasion? Question looms as Russian convoy nears Ukraine
Opinion: Why Vladimir Putin isn't going to make peace
Journalist Victoria Butenko reported from Kiev, CNN's Will Ripley contributed to this report and Jason Hanna and Joshua Berlinger reported and wrote from Atlanta
