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Lavrov, Kerry discuss Ukraine, fight against IS by phone — Russia's foreign ministry

"Two foreign ministers continued discussions on settlement of the Syria crisis, including from the angles of the need to prevent any incidents in Syria's air space [ ...]", the ministry said

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (archive) Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (archive)

© Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

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MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry have had a telephone conversation focusing on Syria and Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

"In line with the instructions of Presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama issued after their meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the two foreign ministers continued discussions on settlement of the Syria crisis, including from the angles of the need to prevent any incidents in Syria's air space, to coordinate efforts in the fight against Islamic State and other terrorist groups and to promote the process of political settlement in Syria in the context of the Geneva communique of June 30, 2012," the ministry said.

"Along with this, implementation of the Minsk peace agreements on Ukraine adopted on February 12, including results of the Normandy Four summit held in Paris on October 2, and other issues of bilateral agenda were highlighted [in the talk]," the ministry said.

On September 30, Russia’s air and space forces started dealing daytime pinpoint strikes against facilities of the Islamic State terrorist group, outlawed in Russia. On Wednesday, four ships of the Russian Caspian ships had carried out strikes on the terrorists with 26 cruise missiles. Later, the Syrian army launched a ground offensive.

On October 2, leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine held talks in Paris in the so-called Normandy format on resolving the conflict in south-eastern Ukraine. The previous summit on the Ukrainian issue took place in the Belarusian capital Minsk on February 12.

The talks ended by adoption of a 13-point package of measures, known as the Minsk-2 accords, which contained in particular a ceasefire starting from February 15, withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line disengaging the Kiev troops and militias of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as measures on long-term political settlement in Donbas.

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Ukraine crisis Foreign policy Islamic State

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Russia vetoes US-backed UNSC resolution on banning nuclear weapons in outer space

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