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John Kerry to meet Russian counterpart following Putin-Obama Ukraine crisis call Ukraine crisis: John Kerry to meet Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov following Putin-Obama phone call
(about 9 hours later)
US Secretary of State John Kerry is too meet his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Paris to discuss a possible diplomatic resolution to the Ukraine crisis. Top diplomatic envoys from the United States and Russia met in Paris on Sunday night amid tentative hopes they could find a way to ease tension created by Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula and the subsequent massing of tens of thousands of Russian troops along the eastern border with Ukraine.
Mr Kerry was half way home from a week-long trip in the middle east when his plane turned around following a refueling stop in Ireland to head to Paris. John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, was to press his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, for concrete steps to de-escalate the situation and reassure the West it has no plans for wider military incursions into Ukrainian territory. They would include reversing the troop build-up and beginning direct talks with the government in Kiev.
He had spoken to Mr Lavrov by phone on the flight after US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed in a call on Friday to have their foreign ministers meet in an attempt to ease tensions in the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War. Russia, however, set its own conditions for any diplomatic resolution, notably demanding that Ukraine become a loose federation made up of different regions each allowed a wide margin of political autonomy.
Mr Putin initiated the call in order to discuss a written diplomatic proposal from the US which came amid concerns that Russia is planning an invasion of eastern Ukraine after amassing some 40,000 troops on the Russia-Ukraine border. Even as the diplomatic push got under way, several west European governments, including Britain, continued to express alarm about the Russian troop build-up and said they stood ready to deploy forces and equipment to eastern European members of Nato, notably the Baltic states, in case the situation should deteriorate further.
Mr Obama urged Mr Putin to withdraw the troops while the Russian President asserted that Ukraine's government is allowing a “rampage” of nationalist extremists to intimidate Russian speaking civilians with impunity - something which Ukrainian politicians say is not the case. “Nobody should be in any doubt to our resolve to live up to our commitments under the Nato treaty,” Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, told the BBC, referring to the understanding that an attack on one Nato member would always be seen as an attack on all of them.  “We are looking at opportunities to increase participation in planned Nato exercises as another way of reassuring our Nato allies.”
The call came as Mr Lavrov, speaking on Russian television, said the country is ready to protect the rights of Russian speakers in Ukraine. The Paris meeting came after a surprise phone call late on Friday night from Russian President Vladimir Putin to President Barack Obama, the first time the two men had spoken directly since the imposition of financial and travel restrictions by the US and the European Union on Russia.  While the interpretations of that conversation offered by the Kremlin and the White House diverged starkly, it offered some hope of a diplomatic end to the stand-off.
He did however reinforced a message from Mr Putin that Russia has "absolutely no intention of - or interest in - crossing Ukraine's borders". Before the talks, Mr Lavrov played down the sanctions. “I don’t want to say that sanctions are ridiculous and that we couldn’t care less, these are not pleasant things,” he told Russian television. “We find little joy in that, but there are no painful sensations. We have lived through tougher times.” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, is greeted by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the Russian Ambassador's residence for a meeting to discuss Ukraine
The West imposed sanctions on Russia, including visa bans on some of Putin's inner circle, after Moscow annexed Crimea this month following a referendum on union of the Russian-majority region with the Russian Federation that the West called illegal. As part of any deal, the US would expect Russia to begin pulling back about 40,000 troops thought to have been deployed close to Ukraine, to disarm the militia that entered and took control of Crimea and to open talks with Ukraine. International observers would also be deployed inside Ukraine and Crimea to monitor tensions.
In an interview with Germany's Focus magazine published on Saturday, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance is “extremely worried” about Russia’s actions. So far the US has said little publicly about the notion of turning Ukraine into a federation beyond saying that no constitutional changes could be imposed without the consent of its people.
“We view it as a concrete threat to Ukraine and see the potential for further interventions,” said Mr Rasmussen. But Mr Lavrov suggested that the US was not against the federal solution. “We can’t see any other way to ensure the stable development of Ukraine but to sign a federal agreement,” he said, adding that he understood the US was open to the idea.
“I fear that it is not yet enough for him (Putin). I am worried that we are not dealing with rational thinking as much as with emotions, the yearning to rebuild Russia's old sphere of influence in its immediate neighbourhood.”
In Ukraine, the presidential election effectively became a two-horse race after boxer-turned-politician Vitaly Klitschko pulled out to throw his weight behind confectionary oligarch Petro Poroshenko.
The move sets up a May 25 contest between the man known as the “Chocolate King” and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, an ex-gas executive millionaire who was previously imprisoned on charges of embezzlement and abuse of power.