The United States confirmed its support for a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, after President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin traded demands Monday on the situation in Ukraine. "We would support any side taking steps towards a cease-fire," State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters during the daily press briefing. "We need to see those steps taken to support the words that we have now seen from President Putin and others," Harf added. Obama urged Putin to stop supporting the separatists and letting arms flow across the border into Ukraine, and Putin demanded that Ukraine hold direct, not indirect, talks with the eastern separatists who have declared independence.
