State Dep’t Official: Don’t Take Kerry’s ‘Literally’ Comment on Russia/Ukraine Literally

With the clock running down on a ceasefire between Ukraine’s government and pro-Russian separatists in the country’s east, Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday called on Russia to show, “in the next hours, literally,” that it was working on disarming the militias. Hours later, however, a senior State Department official said the comment “shouldn’t be taken literally,” as Kerry simply intended to underline the urgency of the situation.