Obama, Putin talk after Ukrainian peace accord

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone for about an hour on Friday, shortly after the Ukrainian government and opposition leaders announced a deal to head off the political crisis in Kiev.

“They exchanged views on the need to implement quickly the political agreement reached (Friday) in Kiev, the importance of stabilizing the economic situation and undertaking necessary reforms, and the need for all sides to refrain from further violence,” the White House said in a statement.

Obama and Putin, who have clashed over the civil war in Syria, once again found themselves at odds over Ukraine.

Friday’s agreement, which was facilitated by France, Germany and Poland and reached after all-night talks, was consistent with the Obama administration’s earlier call for de-escalating the violence, constitutional reform and early elections. But Russia did not sign on to the deal.

Ukraine’s parliament voted on Friday to allow the release of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who has been imprisoned for more than two years. Tymoshenko left imprisonment Saturday and spoke to a massive, adoring crowd, while her arch-foe, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, decamped to eastern Ukraine and vowed to remain in power.

In comments earlier this week, Obama tried to downplay U.S.-Russian competition in Ukraine as well as Syria. At the same time, he has not shied away from noting that Russia has supported the governments in Syria and Ukraine when the citizens of those countries have expressed the desire to move their country in a different direction.

But Obama noted that he doesn’t see the differences in the Ukraine and Syria as reflective of a “Cold War chessboard in which we’re in competition with Russia.”