Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a phone conversation with the German Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Baerbock, the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.

In the context of the talks held in Moscow on Tuesday between Russian President Putin and German Federal Chancellor Scholz, the foreign ministers continued to exchange views on the key aspects of the international agenda to date.

With regard to the situation in south-eastern Ukraine, Sergey Lavrov said that Kyiv was responsible for the escalation of the situation on the line of contact in Donbas. He called on the German side, as a member of the Normandy format, to exert maximum influence on the Ukrainian authorities in order to encourage them to take a more constructive stance.

It was noted that the implementation of the Minsk agreements remained the only way to achieve a lasting and sustainable settlement of the internal Ukrainian conflict.