The ongoing Ukraine crisis must be settled via negotiations with representatives of the country's Russian-speaking regions and international mediators, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.
"We stand for the south and east of Ukraine to be represented during the upcoming events," Lavrov told reporters.
He noted that since the new Ukrainian government seized power in Kiev after the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych, it has made no moves to satisfy "legal demands" of the country's Russian-speaking regions.
"On the opposite, all gestures (from Kiev) have mostly been negative," he said, referring to the Ukrainian parliament's decision to scrap a law that gave Russian language a special status in the country.
Lavrov reiterated Moscow's readiness for four-party talks over the crisis with Ukraine, the European Union (EU) and the United States.
During the talks a draft new constitution of Ukraine could be considered, he said.
Also on Tuesday, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said Kiev stands ready for dialogue with Moscow in any format to find a way out of the ongoing crisis.
"Ukraine is ready for consultations with the Russian side both in the bilateral format and with the attendance of international mediators from the EU and the United States," the Interfax news agency quoted ministry spokesman Eugene Perebiynis as saying.
On Monday, Moscow and Washington initiated an idea to create a contact group consisting of top diplomats from Ukraine, Russia, the EU and the United States and hold multilateral talks within 10 days.
The initiative came shortly after pro-Russian activists seized government buildings in Ukraine's eastern city of Donetsk, demanding closer ties with Moscow and referendums to secede from Ukraine.