MOSCOW, July 27. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has asked the United States to stop hindering the work of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Russian foreign ministry said on Sunday.

In a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Lavrov stressed that “Russia invited OSCE observers to its border checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk at the border with Ukraine and expects they will arrive without delays,” the ministry said. “He asked John Kerry to instruct his subordinates not to hinder the OSCE in its work.

Lavrov and Kerry agreed that despite all the differences in their approaches to the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict it was vital to press towards for the immediate ceasefire and the launch of talks between the conflicting parties in line with the agreements committed to paper in the Geneva communiqu· signed by Russia, the United States, the European Union and Ukraine on April 17, 2014.

Apart from that, the two foreign ministers exchanged views on the situation in the Middle East, where the U.S. Secretary of State had been on a working visit on Saturday. They also discussed the situation in the bilateral dialogue on non-proliferation problems.

The conversation was initiated by the U.S. side.