Rancho Mirage
(United States) (AFP) - US President Barack Obama has urged his Russian
counterpart Vladimir Putin to end air strikes against Syrian opposition forces,
the White House said Sunday.
In a phone call with Putin Saturday, Obama stressed
the need to quickly get humanitarian aid to besieged areas and initiating the
cessation of hostilities across the war-wracked country, it said.
"In particular, President Obama emphasized the
importance now of Russia playing a constructive role by ceasing its air
campaign against moderate opposition forces in Syria."
The call came in the wake of a truce deal forged
Friday by Washington and Moscow that has been criticized by the Syrian
opposition, which accuses Russia of continuing bombings of civilian areas.
Obama also
raised Russia's conflict with #Ukraine in the call to Putin, urging
"combined Russian-separatist forces" to adhere to a ceasefire and
ensure that monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe have "full access to all areas of #eastern_Ukraine, including the
international border."
Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko said Saturday that Russian troops, weapons and
ammunition were entering Ukraine every day.
"Mr
(Vladimir) Putin, this is not a civil war in Ukraine, this is your
aggression," he said.
His remarks came as US Secretary of State John Kerry
said Moscow must pull its troops out of Ukraine and that sanctions on Russia
would remain in place until it implements all aspects of the Ukraine peace
agreement reached in Belarus' capital Minsk last year.
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