Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called for immediate lifting of an economic blockade of pro-Russian rebel-held eastern Ukraine.
Lavrov, speaking at an Organization for Security and Cooperation meeting Thursday, said that the blockade by the Kiev government “cannot be justified by anything.”
Ukraine clamped down on the rebel-held parts of the Donetsk region and the neighboring separatist Luhansk region with the blockade, including freezing of business contacts.
The Kiev government has had no control over parts of eastern Ukraine since pro-Russian separatist rebels began fighting government forces in April 2014.
An armistice signed in the Belarus capital Minsk in February has regularly been violated.
Lavrov says Moscow is “convinced that the prospects for peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine are realistic and have no alternative.”