It is clear there are many issues for bilateral cooperation. And one of them is the conflict in the East of Ukraine. Ukrainian issue will remain on the agenda both of the United States and Germany until the conflict in Eastern Ukraine is resolved.

It seems here that Trump determines what policy Washington should choose towards Russia. It concerns not only Ukraine, where ceasefire proclaimed in the East on April, 1st, was just immediately broken. And I hope that Washington understands who stands behind the violation of the ceasefire.

But also the United States are aware of, to say so, inappropriate, from Washington's point of view, behavior of Russia in the Middle East, especially in Syria. This was stated by the U.S. permanent representative to the UN: Russia should not support Assad, and its behavior does not meet civilizational norms. It was even said that Russia had become a problem.

So, the White House has been realizing the real face of the Kremlin, the reality of the fact that the Kremlin has become a problem for international security. And the United States should decide what to do in order Russia under Putin's control not to bring as many problems as it creates now.

It should be noted that all this happened just before the meeting in the Normandy format, which will be held in Minsk at the level of advisers. And it is obvious that Trump and Angela Merkel made exchanges of views on the Ukrainian issue and on ways of further settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Since Germany is included in the Normandy format, but the United States is not, it is clear that Trump wanted to convey his position through the German leader Angela Merkel.

I also want to note that the issue of cooperation in the framework of NATO was raised. And after the Warsaw summit, NATO started to pay more attention to security on its Eastern borders, i.e. in Eastern Europe, which was caused by the aggressive behavior of Russia. Therefore, it is expected that on May, 25, at the Brussels NATO summit, which Trump plans to visit, and Angela Merkel will be of course there, the issue will be certainly raised - how to do the Eastern flank of the NATO safe, how to restrain Russia, how to influence it to stop its aggressive behavior.

As Trump previously noted, the settlement of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine must be carried out exclusively by diplomatic means. However, in order this diplomatic path to have an effect, it is necessary to have levers of influence on the Kremlin. I think that just such possible levers were also discussed during this telephone conversation.