Lavrov expects U.S. to influence Kyiv for sake of Minsk deal implementation
MOSCOW. March 25 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hopes that Russia and the United States will continue to pressure conflicting parties in the Ukraine crisis for the sake of the implementation of the Minsk agreements; for instance the United States will influence Kyiv, just like they do in the case of Syria.
"We value the U.S. interest in helping resolve this situation, moreover that the final goal of Minsk II coincides for all foreign actors. We hope that, same as in the case of Syria, all parties to the Ukraine crisis will be pressured. Given the special relationship between the United States and the Ukrainian government, we are expecting these special relations to be used to encourage Kyiv to fulfill what it has signed up for, and we undertake to ensure that the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics implement what their representatives have signed up for," Lavrov said at a press conference after the visit of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Moscow.