Presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan discuss ways of resolving Ukraine crisis- Kremlin

Photo:tass.ruRussian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev have discussed by phone "the possible ways of resolving the crisis situation in south-eastern Ukraine," the Kremlin press service said on Monday.

The leaders also focused on "several practical aspects of integration cooperation as part of the Eurasian Economic Union," the press service said. The discussion came a day after a four-way phone conversation in the so-called Normandy format, tass.ru reports.

On Sunday, the presidents of Russia, France, Ukraine and German Chancellor Angela Merkel summed up the interim results of the effort to prepare a document on resolving the Ukrainian crisis.

The leaders agreed to meet on a neutral territory in Minsk, Belarus, on Wednesday.

"We have agreed that we shall try to organise a meeting in a similar format between leaders of countries and governments in Minsk, we shall plan for Wednesday, if by that time we manage to agree on certain positions, which have been discussed intensively lately," Putin said during a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Last week, Hollande and Merkel visited both Kiev and Moscow. The goal of the so-called "shuttle diplomacy" is to draft a document to implement last year’s Minsk agreements, taking into account the proposals of Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko.