U.S. not to turn a blind eye to Russia's criminal acts in Ukraine - State Department

"Just because we want to find areas of cooperation and to improve the relationship in - with Russia where we can because they are also a nuclear superpower does not mean that we will turn a blind eye to some of the bad acts that they are involved with, such as Ukraine," she said at a briefing in Washington on Thursday. 

Nauert said that it was very important for the United States to restore the unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine. 

"Ukraine is a very serious issue. We will continue to hold Russia accountable to that. We just appointed Kurt Volker to go out and deal with part of that issue," she said.

Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson expressed hope that the Normandy group countries, in cooperation with the United States, could make progress in resolving the situation in eastern Ukraine, first of all, in achieving a ceasefire.

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