MOSCOW, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday he hopes Ukrainian president-elect Volodymyr Zelensky will honor the Minsk agreements on a peaceful settlement of conflicts in eastern Ukraine.
"We hope that the new Ukrainian leadership is fully aware of its responsibility and will strictly adhere to the Minsk package of measures," Lavrov said in an address to the eighth Moscow Conference on International Security.
Since April 2014, an armed conflict between government troops and pro-independence insurgents has been underway in Ukraine's eastern region of Donbas.
The Minsk agreements, reached in September 2014 and February 2015 respectively, are designed to peacefully end the conflict in Donbas. They envisage a cease-fire, a withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the contact line, a prisoner exchange and local elections, among other measures.
During his first press conference after Sunday's victory, Zelensky said that he intended to seek a settlement in Donbas, adhere to the Minsk agreements and "reboot" them.
Zelensky on Sunday won the country's presidential election after defeating incumbent President Petro Poroshenko in the second round.
Earlier, Zelensky said he does not rule out direct negotiations between Kiev and Moscow on the crisis in Donbas.
