Dacic speaks before Helsinki Commission of the U.S. Congress

Dacic speaks before Helsinki Commission of the U.S. Congress

WASHINGTON -- The ceasefire agreement between the pro-Russian forces and the Ukrainian side is observed for the most part, Ivica Dacic has said.

The OSCE chairperson-in-office and Serbia's foreign minister Ivica Dacic spoke before the Helsinki Commission of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday to remark that the ceasefire in Ukraine was fragile," TASS reported.

The OSCE's top priority is to prevent the crisis in Ukraine from escalating and later turning into an even bigger conflict, he noted.

The OSCE is trying to ensure that the crisis is resolved through diplomatic means, the Russian agency quoted Dacic.

Commenting on meetings with the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers Sergei Lavrov and Pavel Klimkin in New York on Monday, Dacic stated that "the two sides had agreed to extend the mandate of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine by another year."

"We managed to agree on extending the mandate of the mission by 12 months," he said, according to TASS.

Dacic will today in Washington meet with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, at the end of his visit to the U.S. made in his OSCE role.

The meeting will come days after Kerry told a U.S. Senate subcommittee that Serbia was among the countries "in the line of fire" when it comes to the Ukrainian crisis.