Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry agreed in a phone conversation on Sunday on the importance of
ensuring a swift ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, a Foreign
Ministry statement in Moscow said.
But the State Department said Kerry did not
accept Lavrov's denial that heavy weapons from Russia were
contributing to the conflict and urged him "to stop the flow of heavy
weapons and rocket and artillery fire from Russia into Ukraine,
and to begin to contribute to de-escalating the conflict."
"During a phone call this afternoon,
Secretary Kerry urged Foreign Minister Lavrov to stop the flow of heavy weapons
and rocket and artillery fire from Russia into Ukraine, and to begin to
contribute to de-escalating the conflict," the State Department said in readout
of the call. "He did not accept Foreign Minister Lavrov’s denial that
heavy weapons from Russia were contributing to the conflict."
Washington and the West
accuse Moscow of supporting rebels fighting Ukrainian troops in the
east of the former Soviet republic with coaching, military-grade artilleries, and blasting by Russian troops on Ukrainian positions across
the border.
On July 17, Russian-backed rebels downed Malaysia Flight MH17, killing all 298
people on board.
A senior State Department official
stressed an additional point of the phone call in a subsequent email, saying Kerry
"underlined our support for a mutual cease-fire verified by the OSCE and
reaffirmed our strong support for the international investigation to show the
facts of MH17."
Moscow denies involvement in east
Ukraine. The Russian statement described the crisis is an "internal
conflict."
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