You're reading: Lavrov urges Kyiv to talk with those in control of situation in southeastern Ukraine

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged the Ukrainian authorities to hold negotiations with those who really control the situation in the southeastern part of the country in a telephone conversation with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Lavrov and Klimkin had a telephone conversation on June 20, the key points of which were reported in a Russian Foreign Ministry statement for the media, the ministry said. “We were surprised to see a commentary on this conversation by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, which claimed that the ministers supported the Ukrainian president’s peace plan ‘with an emphasis placed on the efficient control of the Ukrainian border’. First of all, this is not true to fact. It is difficult to maintain something that does not yet exist in reality,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

“We would like to stress once again that Lavrov urged Kyiv in the telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart to hold negotiations with those who really control the situation in the southeast of Ukraine,” it said.