Ukraine's pro-Russian rebels close IRC aidgroup office

(Vatican Radio) The offices of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in eastern Ukraine have been closed down by pro-Russian rebels who accused it of spying amid amid a wider standoff between with the international community.

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos: 

Staff were briefly detained in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk by masked gunmen who apparently work for the region's feared security ministry. 

The IRC, which us led by former British Foreign Minister David Miliband, did not immediately comment. 

A spokesman of the security ministry of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic linked the detention to spying.

EAVESDROPPING EQUIPMENT

The IRC had allegedly concealed eavesdropping equipment and he added that foreigners in his words "regularly travelled to Ukraine, but not in order to accompany the IRC on humanitarian missions".

He also said the agency had been hiring local residents for work without signing agreements with them, evading the payment of taxes into the rebel region's budget. 

However the IRC claims its mission is to help people whose lives have been shattered by a conflict and disaster that in Ukraine alone has killed more than 6,000 people in the Donetsk Luhansk regions. 

Among those helping is Alexandra from Svyatogorsk. "I am the translator of IRC [and] my home is a small industrial city in the eastern part of Ukraine in the Donetsk region. Now our city if is in fighting and most of the people had to move from there," the young woman explained in a video message. 

MORAL OBLIGATION 

"I joined the IRC because I feel a moral obligation to help my region my  motherland, and people who live there because now people I know in my city and surrounding areas are in fighting", she said. 

"And if we can help I think we must. You can't understand how much you love your home until you leave it and you have no opportunity to come back."

Her group also works on the provision of women's hygiene and safety equipment.

The raid on the IRC is the latest in a wider stand off of Moscow and the Russian backed separatists with the West, which hasn't recognized the autonomy of the rebel regions and imposed sanctions on Russia over its role in Ukraine. 

RUSSIA TENSIONS

Additionally Russia has condemned French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for their decision to boycott a World War Two victory parade on May 9 in Moscow. 

The two leaders have expressed anger over Russia's actions in Ukraine.

Their decision also comes amid renewed fighting between government forces and pro-Russian separatists that have killed several people, including Ukrainian troops, in recent days. 

The NATO military alliance says Russia supports the rebels with weapons and regular troops but Moscow calls them Russian volunteers.