Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Evangelos Venizelos talked by telephone today (21.2.2014) from Tirana, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about the critical developments in Ukraine.

Venizelos stressed to Lavrov that the Greek Presidency of the Council of the EU – in cooperation with the EU High Representative on issues of foreign policy, and within the framework of the decisions of the Council – is prepared to provide its good offices towards the stabilization of the situation in Ukraine within an inclusive and democratic framework that ensures the country’s territorial integrity and averts repetition of the violence and, even more so, the escalation of the violence into conditions of civil war.

Having thanked Venizelos, Lavrov set out the official Russian position, stressing in particular the need for the agreed solutions in Ukraine to provide for the participation not only of all political and social forces, but also of all the regions of Ukraine.