MOSCOW, September 4 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Laurent Fabius have expressed hope in a telephone conversation that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s seven-point peace plan would help develop a platform for the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday.
“Both sides have expressed support for the recent efforts, including the August 26 CIS-Ukraine-EU meeting in Minsk, as well as direct contacts between presidents Putin and Poroshenko. Hope was expressed that the ceasefire proposals formulated by the Russian President on September 3 would help in the development of a mutually acceptable platform for productive work of the Contact Group with the participation of Ukrainian sides, the Russian Federation and the OSCE at the planned September 5 meeting in Minsk,” the statement says.
The Russian Foreign Ministry notes that Lavrov also held a telephone conversation with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the two expressed “full support for the recent efforts to guard the ceasefire agreements between Kiev and militia in southeastern Ukraine”.
On September 1, the Contact Group on Ukrainian reconciliation, comprising Russia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Ukrainian government and eastern Ukraine’s independence supporters met in the Belarusian capital, Minsk.
On Wednesday, President Putin put forward a seven-point peace plan for Ukraine, which will be discussed at the Friday meeting of the Contact Group, which will also take place in Minsk.
