MOSCOW, January 5. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone conversation on Thursday about the destructive role the West has been playing by pumping Ukraine with arms and assigning targets to it, according to the Kremlin.

The two leaders "discussed the situation around Ukraine. Russia laid an emphasis on the destructive role of Western countries who have been pumping the Kiev regime with weapons and military hardware as well as providing it with operational information and assigning targets to it," the Kremlin said in a statement.

In light of Erdogan’s readiness to mediate a political solution to the conflict, "Putin reiterated that Russia is open to a serious dialogue, given authorities in Kiev meet demands that have been repeatedly put forward, with due account taken of the new territorial realities," the Kremlin added.

According to the Kremlin, Putin and Erdogan also discussed the agreements reached in Istanbul to export Ukrainian grain and unblock Russian food and fertilizer exports.