MOSCOW, May 8. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson have expressed willingness to improve dialogue on bilateral issues and global challenges, the Kremlin press service commented after the leaders had a phone call.

"Both sides expressed readiness to boost dialogue and cooperation on issues on the Russian-British agenda as well as on resolving current global challenges," the Kremlin statement reads.

The Kremlin informed that Putin and Johnson "exchanged congratulations on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazism — the greatest event of the 20th century and an example of unprecedented cooperation of the anti-Hitler coalition states."

"Vladimir Putin particularly noted that Russia remembers the feat of British sailors of the Arctic convoys, thanks to whom the Soviet army and industry received the necessary arms and material in the wartime," the statement runs. "Boris Johnson, in turn, on behalf of the British nation expressed gratitude for the Soviet Union’s and its troops’ decisive contribution to the victory over the common enemy." "It was acknowledged that the fighting alliance of those times reminds [us] of the importance of consolidating efforts to counter modern challenges and efforts, one of which is the coronavirus pandemic," the press service noted.