KIEV, August 7. /TASS/: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has told reporters he had a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Donbass.
"This morning I spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin," Zelensky told a briefing following an urgent meeting with security forces, convened after four Ukrainian troops were killed in the Donbass operation zone. "I called him on short notice. I said that this is not bringing us closer to peace."
Kiev claims the servicemen in Donbass came under fire launched by militias.
The Ukrainian president noted that he had asked the Russian leader to exert influence on the other party to "stop killings."
On Tuesday, Zelensky called on the Normandy Four leaders — Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron — to convene a meeting as soon as possible to discuss the death of four Ukrainian servicemen, which Kiev blames on militias of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
Donetsk has rejected the claims, stressing that the incident had occurred way beyond the contact line and not within the militias’ striking range.
