Lavrov hopes Washington to work closely with Kyiv amid positive attitude of U.S. to OSCE roadmap
MOSCOW. May 9 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry talked on the telephone on Friday upon the U.S. initiative.
"The foreign ministers continued discussing the possibilities of joint efforts of Russia, the United States, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on settling acute domestic crisis in Ukraine," the Russian Foreign Ministry posted a statement on its website.
"The Russian party has emphasized the necessity to launch as quickly as possible comprehensive national dialogue between the current Kyiv authorities and representatives of the country's southeastern regions with the OSCE mediation, firstly on issues of constitutional reform, in accordance with the proposals discussed by the Russian and Swiss presidents in Moscow on May 7," the document said.
According to the information of the Foreign Ministry, due to this Lavrov expressed hope that "taking into account the positive attitude of the U.S. to the roadmap developed under the Swiss chairmanship in the OSCE on implementing the Geneva statement of April 17, 2014, Washington will work closely with Kyiv in order to achieve termination of military action in the southeast, release of political prisoners and amnesty of protest participants."
"Lavrov and Kerry have agreed on further contacts in the interests of de-escalating the situation in the southeastern regions, stop of bloodshed there and start of direct talks between opposing sides," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The ministers have also discussed the situation in regard to the completion of chemical disarmament of Syria, the statement said.