State-Owned Russian News Agency Claims Kerry Cancelled Call With Kremlin Foreign Minister

AP

A major Russian news agency owned by the Kremlin published a report Friday evening claiming U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry abruptly cancelled a phone call with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. ITAR-TASS news agency attributed the report to an unnamed diplomatic source. The report did not say when the phone call was allegedly scheduled to occur.

"Kerry's refusal to discuss in a telephone talk with Lavrov the situation in southeast Ukraine indicated the irresponsible approach of the United States, a Russian Foreign Ministry source said," the ITAR-TASS report began. "U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry asked for a telephone talk with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Syria, but when the U.S. side knew that Russia proposed to include the Ukrainian issue, Washington postponed the talk, the source said."

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider about the report.

On April 25, the Daily Beast reported the Kremlin cut off all "high-level contact with the Obama administration."

The ITAR-TASS report concluded with a quote from the unnamed "diplomat" criticizing America's handling of the situation:

"Such an approach clearly indicates that the American colleagues are not interested to look for a way out of the explosive situation fraught with unpredictable consequences and actually play into the hands of the current leadership in Kiev."