MOSCOW, June 25. /ITAR-TASS/. Foreign Ministers of Russia and Germany, Sergei Lavrov and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, have discussed the need to extend ceasefire in Ukraine.

Lavrov and Steinmeier have held a telephone talk over de-escalation in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry says.

Steinmeier spoke about his talks with the Ukrainian leaders in Kiev. He made a working visit to Ukraine on June 24. Steinmeier gave a high assessment to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statements on the situation in Ukraine.

The foreign ministers stressed the need to extend ceasefire for launching a direct dialogue between the warring parties under the OSCE auspices. To this end, they praised the first consultations between the Ukrainian authorities and Ukraine’s southeast in Donetsk on June 23.

Lavrov and Steinmeier emphasized the importance for continuing such meetings in order to discuss a wide range of issues, primarily guarantees of legal rights and interests of citizens, living in Ukraine’s east.

On Tuesday, June 24, as part of the visit to Vienna, Putin said he lauded the seven-day ceasefire in Ukraine and President Petro Poroshenko’s intention to start talks with the southeast.

“I was pleased and encouraged to note that yesterday [on Monday] first direct contacts took place as the Kiev authorities and representatives of Ukraine’s south-east from Donetsk and Luhansk sat down at the negotiating table for the first time,” Putin said.

“If we see that substantive talks are underway so that people in the east of Ukraine could at least understand how their lawful interests will be guaranteed, then success is highly likely,” Putin said.