Obama, Merkel favour setting up contact group for direct Russia-Ukraine dialogue
8 March 2014, 10:28 -- The US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have come out for setting up a contact group that could help launch direct talks between Russia and Ukraine. This came in a statement by the White House on Friday following another telephone conversation between the two leaders on the situation in Ukraine.
According to the White House statement, Obama and Merkel believe that Russia should accept the idea of setting up a contact group in what would result in direct dialogue between Ukraine and Russia in a bid to deescalate the situation and restore Ukraine's territorial integrity. Both leaders voiced grave concern about Russia's obvious violation of international law by intervening militarily in Ukraine.
The statement further points out that Obama and Merkel are at one that Russia should withdraw troops, allow the deployment in Crimea of international observers and support the holding of free and fair presidential elections in Ukraine in May this year.
During the conversation, the US President welcomed the EU Council decision of March 6th, as well as the US-EU joint stance on Ukraine.
Russia says US sanctions over crisis in Ukraine would 'boomerang'
Russia said on Friday any US sanctions imposed against Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine would boomerang back on the United States and urged Washington not to damage bilateral ties.
In a phone conversation with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov 'warned against hasty and reckless steps capable of causing harm to Russian-American relations, particularly ... sanctions, which would inevitably hit the United States like a boomerang', the Foreign Ministry said.
Moscow hopes EU will refrain from discrediting Ukraine moves – Russian Foreign Ministry
Russia has expressed the hope that the European Union will refrain from any moves over the Ukraine crisis that might risk damaging trust in the EU as a strategic partner.
'We hope that common sense will, on the whole, prevail in the European and Euro-Atlantic organizations and they will be able to realize their key role in achieving greater European unity. We also hope that the European Union, which has been seeking, not always successfully, to play a leading role in Ukraine, will refrain from moves that risk undermining trust in the EU as a strategic partner,' the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.
Voice of Russia, TASS, RIA, Interfax
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