“There is a meeting tomorrow that will take place by video and we [Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov] will both instruct our teams to try to dig in and make some suggestions,” Kerry said.
“These working groups are the best mechanism for the full implementation of the Minsk agreement and the defusing of the crisis in Ukraine.”
The United States and Russia are close to putting together an agreement for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to have greater oversight on withdrawing weapons from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, Kerry added.
Kerry said the duo also discussed “difference of opinion” between the United States and Russia on interpretations of the Minsk accord with respect to Ukrainian constitutional reforms.
OSCE representatives said in a press briefing on Thursday that Russian military hardware had not crossed the Ukrainian-Russian border checkpoints of Donetsk and Gukovo over the past year.
The immediate withdrawal of heavy artillery from the contact line and a ceasefire were stipulated in the Minsk peace deal signed by the Normandy Quarter in February, however, both sides have repeatedly accused each other of violating the agreement.
