Washington is ready to lift current restrictive measures against Russia if Moscow changes its course in the context of the situation in Ukraine, U.S. President Barack Obama has said.

"A different path is available – the path of diplomacy and peace and the ideals this institution is designed to uphold. The recent ceasefire agreement in Ukraine offers an opening to achieve that objective. If Russia takes that path – a path that for stretches of the post-Cold War period resulted in prosperity for the Russian people – then we will lift our sanctions," he said in his speech at the 69th session of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.

Obama said that in this case the United States would welcome Russia's role in addressing common challenges.

He said that in recent years Washington and Moscow had managed to cooperate on a number of issues and "that's the kind of cooperation we are prepared to pursue again - if Russia changes course."

"That's what the United States and Russia have been able to do in past years – from reducing our nuclear stockpiles to meet our obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to cooperating to remove and destroy Syria's declared chemical weapons," he said.