GENEVA. April 18 (Interfax) - Participants of the four-party talks on Ukraine in Geneva have approved a joint document on the situation in the country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"We have approved the document - this is the Geneva statement of April 14, in which we agree with the necessity of taking certain initial steps to de-escalate tensions and have security for all Ukrainian citizens," Lavrov said at a news conference.
"We agreed that all sides must abstain from violence, intimidation or provocative actions and we strongly condemned and rejected any manifestations of extremism, racism and religious intolerance, including anti-Semitism. This is a highly appropriate demand against the backdrop of what has been going on in contemporary Ukraine for the past few months," the minister said.
"We called for taking the following steps: all the illegal armed units must be disarmed, all the illegally occupied buildings must be returned to their lawful owners, and all the occupied squares, streets and other public places in all cities of Ukraine must be freed," Lavrov said.