The United States hopes to move forward on Ukraine and urges Moscow to reach out to newly-elected President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after their meeting in Sochi on Tuesday
SOCHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th May, 2019) The United States hopes to move forward on Ukraine and urges Moscow to reach out to newly-elected President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after their meeting in Sochi on Tuesday."We also discussed situation in Ukraine. Trump Administration has been clear that we do not recognize Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea, and we hope that we can continue to move forward. Our sanctions have remained in place. I urged Russia to reach out to Ukraine's new President to demonstrate leadership by taking step towards breaking the stalemate. We would particularly welcome the release of the Ukrainian crewmen detained in the Kerch Strait last year and we talked about implementation and how we might move forward in obtaining a ceasefire in the Donbas region," Pompeo said.
Crimea rejoined Russia in 2014, when 97 percent of those who participated in the referendum on the matter supported the reunification. Russia has repeatedly stated that the referendum was conducted in compliance with international law. Moscow has repeatedly slammed Kiev's attempts to portray the detained sailors as prisoners of war, stressing that they faced criminal charges.
