U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Ukraine and Germany next week for talks with officials, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Friday that Kerry will travel to Kyiv, where he will meet with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, and members of Ukraine's parliament.
There had been speculation that Kerry would also travel to Moscow next week but State Department officials say no additional stops have been planned.
Psaki did say that Kerry expected to meet with Lavrov on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Psaki said Kerry and Lavrov would likely discuss “a range of issues.”
While in Germany, Secretary Kerry will hold bilateral and multilateral meetings.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg plans to meet the Russian Foreign Minister on the sidelines of the Munich conference.
NATO has indicated that it wants to resume military cooperation with Russia.
The meetings come amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Russia for what the U.S. and its Western allies say is Russia’s interference in Ukraine.
