MOSCOW, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres discussed the situations in Syria and Ukraine in a telephone conversation Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Lavrov and Guterres discussed the prospects of the UN expanding its conflict prevention and peacemaking work while exchanging views on the conflict in Syria, according to a ministry press release.
Russia maintains an airbase and a naval base in Syria to support the Syrian government forces, and Moscow is also actively mediating between conflicting factions in the war-torn country.
During Monday's phone conversation, Lavrov also informed Guterres of the contact between the human rights commissioners of Russia and Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine have detained several people from each other's respective countries amid their tense relations due to Crimea and the armed conflicts in eastern Ukraine.
In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko agreed that the two countries' human rights commissioners should visit Russian citizens detained in Ukraine and Ukrainian detainees in Russia.
