Merkel wants more effort from Russia to de-escalate Ukrainian crisis

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on May 4 phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin to urge Moscow to make more efforts to settle the Ukrainian crisis, Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said. Every effort should be made to ensure that all Ukrainians, regardless of ethnic origin and cultural background, have the opportunity to decide on the future of their country at the May 25 election, "and not in the street, with guns and Molotov cocktails," he said