MOSCOW, June 13. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has emphasised the need to provide humanitarian assistance to residents of Ukraine's southeast.

In a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Andrei Deshchitsa on Friday, Lavrov said necessary conditions should be created to allow refugees to leave the region.

“The foreign ministers of both countries stressed the need to take care of children living in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

“Russia confirmed the principled position on the necessity to immediately terminate the punitive operation in the east of Ukraine in compliance with the provisions of the Geneva statement of April 17, 2014 and the OSCE ‘roadmap’ on the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine,” the ministry said.