On Sergey Lavrov’s telephone conversation with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier

On March 18, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier over the telephone. The sides continued discussions on the current situation in Ukraine.

Mr Lavrov expressed concern over the March 17 resolution of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada on recognising part of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions as occupied territory. This document runs counter to the February 12, 2015 Minsk agreements, may undermine the peace process, and once again seriously destabilise the situation in the southeast of Ukraine.

The ministers agreed on the need for more active efforts to ensure unconditional compliance with the entire package of measures signed in Minsk for resolving the Ukrainian crisis in full, and to taking the agreed-upon steps to do so.

Mr Lavrov and Mr Steinmeier also touched upon specific issues in Russian-German bilateral relations as well as cooperation between Moscow and Berlin during negotiations on the Iranian nuclear programme.

March 18, 2015