Lavrov hopes for Western partners' assistance in establishing direct dialogue between Kyiv and Donetsk and Luhansk
MOSCOW. Aug 17 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he is hoping that the new meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine will help establish direct dialogue between Kyiv and Donetsk and Luhansk, despite the position of the Ukrainian authorities.
"I hope the series of meetings of the Contact Group [on Ukraine] and its subgroups planned for next week will eventually change the tendency towards Kyiv's refusal of direct dialogue and we, together with our partners in the Normandy format, together with our American colleagues, who assured us that they sincerely want to achieve full fulfillment of Minsk II, can still help establish such direct dialogue," Lavrov told a press conference following negotiations with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif.
Lavrov said "Ukraine is constantly trying to avoid such contacts [in the Contact Group] or force an approach according to which all issues should be resolved without the involvement of Donetsk and Luhansk, and they should only be put before a fact."
"All these things lead one to very alarming thoughts," the minister said.
