U.S. Urges Steps from Russia to End Ukraine Crisis as Moscow, Berlin Discuss Truce Extension

Russia must take "concrete" steps to resolve the Ukraine crisis, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday, warning Moscow could easily reinstate its parliamentary approval for military intervention.

Russian President Vladimir Putin must publicly call for pro-Moscow rebels to lay down their arms and cut support to them, Kerry said, adding: "There are many concrete things that would make a difference on the ground."

Washington was "delighted" with Putin's decision, approved by parliament Wednesday, to revoke the blanket authorization to intervene if ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine were threatened.

"It is an important, a great step -- but it can be reversed in 10 minutes," Kerry said.

The shooting down of a Ukrainian helicopter, with the loss of nine lives Tuesday, was possible because the rebels had Russian weapons, he said, repeating his call for Moscow to cut the flow of arms and fighters into eastern Ukraine.

Putin's failure to come up with real commitments on the ground in the "next days and weeks," runs the risk of tougher sanctions, Kerry warned after a NATO foreign ministers meeting, stressing that preparations for such measures were ongoing. 

Many ministers made a similar point, arguing that Russia must unambiguously sign up to the Ukraine government's peace plan or face the consequences. 

Russia meanwhile said it hoped Kiev and the international community would take heed of the "positive signals" it was sending over the Ukraine crisis, including the withdrawal of the military intervention authorization.

"We are counting on the positive signals that the Russian president is now sending being heard across the world and, above all, in Ukraine," Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told Russian news agencies.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier discussed the necessity of extending Ukraine's one-week ceasefire, the foreign ministry in Moscow said.

"During an exchange of opinions over the development of the situation in Ukraine the need has been discussed to extend the truce and halt fighting with a view to launching direct dialogue between the warring sides with the assistance of the OSCE," the foreign ministry said after the phone talks.

The ceasefire announced by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is set to expire on Friday but clashes have continued despite rebels also agreeing to stop firing their weapons.

Also on Wednesday, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a way to oversee the truce in Ukraine in a telephone conversation with Russian and Ukrainian leaders that lasted more than an hour.

Hollande and Merkel "encouraged" Putin and Poroshenko to "work together, especially in order to put in place a mechanism to oversee the truce," the French presidency said in a statement.

They said this process could be operated with the help of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and called for the immediate release of those being held by both sides.

Kiev said the crunch round of telephone diplomacy between Poroshenko, Putin, Merkel and Hollande will continue Thursday.

Poroshenko's office said the four-way telephone conversation ended on Wednesday with an agreement to let OSCE observers monitor the Ukrainian-Russian border and roadblocks during a temporary truce, and for the sides to "exchange hostage lists."