U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on April 22 to discuss "opportunities for international assistance, including activities of the OSCE monitoring group, in overcoming an acute internal crisis in Ukraine," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Lavrov “particularly emphasized the need for the current Kyiv authorities to act urgently to honestly implement the April 17 agreements in Geneva, cancel the decrees on using the army against the population, disarm gunmen from Right Sector and other ultra-nationalistic organizations, release protest activists in the southeastern regions from under arrest and stop their prosecution, and launch a comprehensive constitutional reform in deed rather than in word,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
“John Kerry insisted that the current Kyiv leaders have already announced the necessary steps toward the said objectives, but he did not cite concrete facts confirming that these words have been put into practice,” it said.
Lavrov and Kerry agreed to continue intensive contacts on the problems in question, it said.
