You're reading: Putin, Hollande, Merkel and Poroshenko hail agreement on Russian gas supplies to Ukraine – Kremlin

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko last night to discuss the crisis in Ukraine, the Kremlin press service has reported.

“The leaders welcomed the recently reached agreements concerning the terms for Russian natural gas deliveries to Ukraine and gas transit. It is an important step toward further ensuring undisrupted Europe-bound gas transit,” it said.

“The parties also confirmed their commitment to the step-by-step implementation of the Minsk agreements aimed at settling the situation in the southeast of Ukraine,” the press service said.

“They reaffirmed the importance of the Contact Group’s work and reiterated the need to strictly observe the ceasefire amid monitoring on the part of the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe],” it said.

“The Russian side calls for a sustainable dialogue to be established between the central Ukrainian authorities and representatives of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, a measure which, beyond any doubt, would contribute to general stabilization efforts,” the Kremlin press service said.