You're reading: Peskov: Putin, Yanukovych had phone conversation last night

Russian presidential press officer Dmitry Peskov has confirmed that the presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine had a phone conversation last night.

“Viktor Yanukovych and Vladimir Putin had a phone conversation
last night. However, some information on the content of this
conversation that has been published is false,” Peskov told reporters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is calling for settling the standoff
in Ukraine as soon as possible, while acknowledging that this is the
prerogative of the legitimate Ukrainian authorities, Peskov said.

“The Russian leadership’s and the Russian president’s position
regarding the events in Ukraine consists in waiting for the soonest
possible settlement of this situation,” Peskov told journalists.

“As to how this settlement should be reached and by what means, the
Russian president believes this is the exclusive prerogative of the
legitimate [Ukrainian] authorities,” Peskov said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not interfering in Ukraine’s
internal affairs and is not giving advice on how to settle the crisis to
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Peskov
said.

“The president of Russia has never given and is not giving advice to
his Ukrainian counterpart on what needs to be done, how this should be
done and so on, and he doesn’t plan to give such advice in the future,”
Peskov told journalists on Wednesday.

The issue of settling the situation in Ukraine is more important with
regard to the topic of Russia giving Kyiv a loan, Russian President
Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“One thing is evident that in this situation, when extremist elements
arrange the events unfolding now in Ukraine, the settlement of this
situation is a priority issue,” Peskov told reporters when
asked whether Russia would continue allocating its loan to Ukraine or
would wait.