Putin, Merkel back Ukraine OSCE mission in phone call: Kremlin

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced their support for an OSCE observer mission to Ukraine, in a telephone conversation today, the Kremlin said.

The two leaders discussed the situation in Ukraine after Crimea joined Russia and "expressed their satisfaction about an agreement for a term of an OSCE observation mission" to the crisis-hit ex-Soviet state, a Kremlin statement said.

Russia has already expressed hopes for the success of the mission of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), while stressing the observers were excluded from Crimea after Moscow took it over.