Putin, Merkel back Ukraine OSCE mission in phone call: Kremlin

Google – AFP, (AFP), 23 March 2014

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) welcomes Germany's Chancellor Angela

 Merkel at the start of the G20 summit on September 5, 2013 in Saint Petersburg

(AFP/File, Alexander Nemenov)

Moscow — Russia's President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced their support for an OSCE observer mission to Ukraine, in a telephone conversation on Sunday, the Kremlin said.

The two leaders discussed the situation in Ukraine after Crimea joined Russia and "expressed their satisfaction about an agreement for a term of an OSCE observation mission" to the crisis-hit ex-Soviet state, a Kremlin statement said.

Russia has already expressed hopes for the success of the mission of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), while stressing the observers were excluded from Crimea after Moscow took it over.