REUTERS
German Chancellor Angela Merkel pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to use his influence to ensure a ceasefire is upheld in eastern Ukraine and OSCE monitors are granted free access to conflict areas, her spokesman said, according to Reuters.
"Here, Russia must assert its influence on the separatists," spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement, describing Merkel's message to Putin, Reuters wrote.
He said the phone call took place at Putin's request.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on February 1, 2016, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed in Berlin that the next Normandy format meeting would be held among the four countries' ministers of foreign affairs in Paris next week.