Moscow - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry agreed in telephone talks that fighting must be stopped immediately in Ukraine's conflict zone and that talks must begin between the conflicting parties, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The Ukrainian crisis remained in the focus of attention. The Russian and U.S. top foreign policy officials agreed that despite differences in approaches, it was important to end the fighting in the conflict zone immediately and to start talks between the conflicting parties in compliance with the agreements, sealed in the Geneva statement made by Russia, the United States and Ukraine on April 17,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Lavrov also said that Russia had invited observers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to visit the Russian checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk on the border with Ukraine and expects them to arrive without delay, it said.
The Russian foreign minister urged Kerry “to instruct his subordinates to stop raising obstacles to the OSCE’s corresponding work,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The talks also dealt with the situation in the Middle East where Kerry travelled to on Saturday, July 26.
The Russian-American dialogue on nonproliferation issues was discussed, too.
The talks were held on the American side’s initiative.
In the meantime, Kerry disagreed with Lavrov on that Russia is not opening fire on the territory of Ukraine, the U.S. Department of State reported in the early hours of Monday, Moscow time.
The U.S. Department of State said in its statement on the phone conversation between Lavrov and Kerry that Kerry had demanded that Russia stop supplying heavy weapons to the militia in southeastern Ukraine and stop artillery and missile attacks on Ukraine.
The statement says Kerry did not accept Lavrov’s denial of any involvement of Russian heavy weapons in this conflict.
The U.S. Department of State says Kerry reiterated that the U.S. backs mutual ceasefire in Ukraine under the control of the OSCE and confirmed its support of the international investigation into the Malaysian plane crash over Ukraine.8 EEST-2
