YEREVAN, MAY 24, ARMENPRESS. The Kremlin’s Press Service says Russian President Vladimir Putin had a phone conversation with Germany’s Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, reports TASS.

They discussed political settlement of the situation in the southeast of Ukraine," the report said. "The sides stressed the importance of observing the ceasefire, raising the efficiency of operations of the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission in the region, expanding its current scope of powers, and building up the Joint Control and Coordination Center."

"Vladimir Putin called for an immediate end to the shelling of populated areas in Donbass by Ukrainian Armed Forces," the press service said. "The Russian side stressed the need for a direct dialogue between Kiev on the one hand, and Donetsk and Lugansk, on the other, for the purpose of full-scale and all-embracing implementation of the February 12, 2015 Minsk accords."

Putin indicated that the package of proposals on local elections, the special status, amnesty, and decentralization had been coordinated with the leaderships of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and it would make sense for the Contact Group in charge of attaining peace settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine to scrutinize them, the Kremlin said.

The sides also had an exchange of opinion on possible steps towards resolution of social, economic and humanitarian problems in eastern Ukraine. In addition to it, some elements of the ongoing crisis in Syria were discussed.