MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have continued discussing various aspects of Ukraine’s crisis in a phone conversation, the Kremlin press service said on Saturday.

Putin “has accentuated the priority of maintaining a ceasefire and of providing support for the economic restoration of the affected regions in Ukraine’s southeast,” the press services said.

He also underscored a lack of options and urgent necessity for establishing a direct political dialogue between Kiev and representatives of Donbass.

“The leaders of Russia and Germany emphasized in a phone conversation their joint determination to promote peace settlement in Ukraine, in particular with regard to implementation of the Minsk agreements,” the press service said. “In this context [both leaders] agreed to step up joint efforts in the ‘Normandy format’, including current consultations between the foreign ministries.

The phone conversation was initiated by the German side.