Foreign ministers of Russia and Germany Sergei Lavrov and Frank Walter Steinmeier had a telephone chat.

The two men talked about ways of de-escalating the crisis in the Ukraine and ways to stabilize the situation.

On his part, Lavrov said he is working to resolve the issue with the OSCE observers’ kidnapping in Slaviansk, but added that the Ukraine should prevent the presence of members of the OSCE in the country in order to ensure their safet.

At the same time, former Ukraine PM, Yulia Tymoshenko stated that the country “must be powerful to fend off the attacker, so that the latter has no such other plans in the future”.