DHAKA: US President Barack Obama has urged President Vladimir Putin to seek a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Ukraine, in a lengthy telephone call.

In their hour-long conversation, the Russian leader said Moscow-Washington relations should not suffer, reports BBC.

Russian troops have taken de facto control of Crimea following the fall of Ukraine`s pro-Moscow president.

The crisis has led to a boycott by many foreign dignitaries of the Sochi Winter Paralympics, which open on Friday.
Solution

President Obama stressed to Russia`s president that his country`s actions in Crimea were a violation of Ukrainian sovereignty, the White House said in a statement.

He said there was a solution available that suited all parties, involving talks between Kiev and Moscow, international monitors in Ukraine and Russian forces returning to their bases.

For his part, President Putin said US-Russian "relations should not be sacrificed due to disagreements over individual, albeit extremely significant, international problems," the Kremlin said.

It was the two leaders` second telephone call concerning Ukraine in less than a week.

It comes after the EU and US joined Ukraine`s government in condemning as "illegal" a move by the Crimea region to set up a referendum to endorse joining Russia.

The Crimean parliament on Thursday said it had decided "to enter into the Russian Federation with the rights of a subject of the Russian Federation" and asked President Putin "to start the procedure".

MPs in Crimea - whose population is mostly ethnic Russian - earlier set a date of 16 March for a referendum on the issue.

BDST: 1003 HRS, MAR 07, 2014