YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, July 14. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has called on Ukraine to update its concept of values and legal norms of the European civilization it is seeking to align itself with.
"They should really follow the path Kiev, Ukrainian public activists, civil society outlined. It is a path to European values. They should update the entire legal spectrum, the entire spectrum of what makes the European civilization, to scrutinize it and move forward," she said in an interview with the Voskresny Vecher (Sunday Evening) with Vladimir Solovyov program on the Rossiya-1 television channel when asked whether the recent telephone conversation between Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Vladimir Zelensky of Ukraine could inspire certain optimism.
According to Zakharova, our countries "have a lot to work on." "There is a vast sphere of activity and responsibility for Kiev. The plan of action was elaborated long ago - it is the Minsk agreements. It is necessary only to implement it, to fulfil the commitments undertaken under it," she stressed.
"And after all of this is implemented in practice, we can speak about optimism," she added.
Putin and Zelensky had a telephone conversation on July 11. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the conversation was requested by the Ukrainian side. The two presidents discussed settlement in southeastern Ukraine and joint efforts to release prisoners kept by the parties to the conflict. They also agreed to continue these efforts at the expert level. Apart from that, they looked at a possibility of further contacts in the Normandy format.