MINSK, August 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said on Tuesday that it was necessary to increase humanitarian aid to Ukrainians affected by the crisis in the country's south-east.

"We call for immediate humanitarian catastrophe relief. It is necessary to boost humanitarian efforts in Ukraine," he said adding that these efforts should involve international organizations, including the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Customs Union, which comprises Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Nazarbayev said it was necessary to provide for the “unbiased control over the humanitarian aid delivery to Ukraine". According to him, it is also necessary “to deescalate the conflict, achieve peaceful settlement and refuse military variants".

Moreover, Nazarbayev said, “the sanctions standoff” must be also stopped as “the logic of trade wars and exchange of sanctions leads us to the dead-end, and it is a road to nowhere". Nazarbayev called on the participating parties to return “to constructive cooperation and gradually lift sanctions".