MOSCOW, March 07. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Barack Obama have discussed “the acute situation” in Ukraine, the Kremlin’s press service has said.

The discussion revealed the divergence of approaches to and opinions of the causes of the current crisis and the existing state of affairs.

Putin said that the current Ukrainian leadership, which had come to power in an unconstitutional way as a result of government coup and lacked a national mandate, was dictating absolutely illegitimate decisions to the eastern and southeastern regions of Ukraine and Crimea. Putin said Moscow could not ignore the requests for help addressed to it and was acting adequately and in full compliance with international law.

Putin emphasized the paramount importance of Russian-US relations for maintaining world stability and security.

“These relations must not be sacrificed to differences over individual, albeit tangible, international problems,” the Kremlin’s press-service quotes Putin as saying.

Putin and Obama agreed that the two countries’ foreign ministers - Sergey Lavrov and John Kerry - would go ahead with intensive contacts.

The telephone conversation had been requested by the US side.