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Putin proposes West to jointly seek political space in eastern Ukraine

MOSCOW, November 17. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed the Western countries to jointly seek with Russia a single political space in the embattled eastern Ukraine.

“Let's bring the positions of the parties closer together,” Putin said in an interview with German TV channel ARD.

“I am going to say something that some people in this country may not like,” the Russian president said. “Let's try to achieve a single political space in those territories. We are ready to move in this direction, but only together.

Putin admitted that viewpoints and approaches of Russia and Germany on the security issues in regard to Ukraine “do not always coincide.”

“What is clear is that Russia and the Federal Republic of Germany want the situation in this region to be settled,” he said. “We are interested in this and we will work for the observation of the Minsk agreements.”

The Russian president also said that s surreptitious support of Russophobic sentiments in Ukraine would lead to nothing but a catastrophe.

“We are told again and again: pro-Russian separatists must do this and this, you must influence them in this way, you must act in that way,” the Russian president said.

“I have always asked them: ‘What have you done to influence your clients in Kiev? What have you done? Or do you only support Russophobic sentiments?’ This is very dangerous, by the way. A catastrophe will happen if somebody surreptitiously supports Russophobia in Ukraine. It will be a real catastrophe!”