Updated on 11:25 a.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, September 4 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan is targeted to help Kiev and southeastern Ukraine coordinate their efforts in de-escalating the conflict in the country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.
“Vladimir Putin’s initiative is targeted to help Kiev and southeast [Ukraine] to coordinate the necessary actions to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine,” Lavrov said during talks with Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe President Ilkka Kanerva.
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko discussed the first steps to bringing an end to the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine over the telephone, and said that the presidents’ views to exiting the crisis were similar.
On the same day, Putin outlined a seven-point plan for the settlement of the crisis in Ukraine, calling on Kiev to withdraw its troops from the country’s southeastern regions and militia to cease its military advances.
The plan also includes proposals for an international monitoring force, the establishment of a humanitarian corridor, a ban on the use of combat aircraft over urban areas, an exchange of prisoners in an “all for all” formula and direct access to destroyed infrastructure for repair crews in the war-ravaged areas.
