REUTERS
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have agreed that a meeting of the contact group on resolving the crisis in Ukraine should be held as soon as possible.
"In the context of the situation in southeastern Ukraine, the consistent implementation of the Minsk agreements is paramount, as is the convening of a contact group for this purpose as early as possible,” the two said in a joint statement released after they had a meeting in Rome on Sunday
The Russian foreign minister also said that "any attempt to put pressure on Russia has no chance to success," according to a report on the meeting on the Facebook page of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Kerry and Lavrov also discussed the Syrian civil war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the meeting.