Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry have agreed to continue contacts in the interests of the soonest normalization of the situation in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday after a telephone conversation between the two foreign ministers.

“The two foreign ministers continued the discussion of possible international assistance in the settlement of the political crisis in Ukraine in the light of the Thursday four-party meeting in Geneva,” the ministry said, adding that the conversation had been initiated by the U.S. side.