MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/. Russia is grateful to the Vatican for its balanced position on the situation in Ukraine and its initiatives regarding the conflict settlement process, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after his meeting on Tuesday with Vatican Secretary for Relations with States Paul Richard Gallagher.

"We thanked our colleagues for their balanced position on the situation in and around Ukraine. We outlined Russia's principled approaches to resolving the Ukrainian crisis based on the elimination of its root causes and confirmed our appreciation for the Vatican's active involvement in resolving a number of acute humanitarian issues in the Ukrainian conflict," Lavrov said at a joint press conference with Gallagher in Moscow.

"We confirmed our mutual commitment to continue bilateral cooperation in this area, including on the extremely sensitive ‘children’s dossier,’" the minister added.