MOSCOW, July 01. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia will provide assistance to refugees from Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with Russian ambassadors and permanent representatives on Tuesday.

“Of course, everything that is going on in Ukraine is an internal affair of the Ukrainian state. It pains us to see people dying, especially civilians. As you may know, the number of refugees in Russia is growing. We will of course provide assistance to all those who need it,” Putin said.

As of today, Russia’s regional temporary accommodation centers have some 17,500 Ukrainian refugees, or 400 people more than the day before. Over 24 hours, five additional temporary centers were opened. Overall, 250 such centers have been deployed for assistance to Ukrainian nationals.

Over 2,000 people from Crimea and the southern Russian Rostov Region, where residents of Ukraine’s Southeast are mainly arriving, have been transferred by vehicles and Emergencies Ministry aviation to other regions.

The Bryansk, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Voronezh, Lipetsk, Volgograd regions, the Stavropol Territory, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria and North Ossetia have received refugees from Ukraine.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry (EMERCOM) has sent to the federal Russian city of Sevastopol an additional batch of humanitarian assistance. Foodstuffs, beds, tents and personal hygiene means, weighing some 36 metric tons, have been delivered to the city by a special flight.

Overall, EMERCOM aviation and vehicles have transferred more than 360 tons of humanitarian aid to refugees from Ukraine’s southeastern territories.

Ukrainians continue fleeing the war-torn Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine where the Ukrainian military, units of the “national guard” and squads of the Right Sector ultranationalist movement are conducting a military operation against the people demanding federalization of the country and greater rights for Russian language speakers since mid-April.

Russian Regional Development Minister Igor Slyunyayev said Monday that the number of Ukrainian refugees arriving in Russia from the embattled Southeast of Ukraine may reach 300,000 by the end of this year.