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Kerry and Lavrov meet, but omens on Ukraine are not good
The diplomatic chill is deepening ahead of Crimea’s vote on joining Russia. And the tougher the west gets, the more intransigent the Russians could become.
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Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said Western leaders are preparing for war against Russia and that Moscow would press on with military action in Ukraine “until the end”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov tells John Kerry that Ukraine must stop its military operation in southeastern regions of the country as part of efforts to defuse the crisis.
The diplomatic chill is deepening ahead of Crimea’s vote on joining Russia. And the tougher the west gets, the more intransigent the Russians could become.
Sergei Lavrov says the military fatigues who have taken over Ukrainian military bases in Crimea are not Russian soldiers. One colonel tells me: “It’s a lie.”
Representatives of the Syrian regime and opposition have agreed to hold direct talks following discussions at an international summit in Switzerland, according to Russia’s foreign minister.
After August’s chemical attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, prospects for peace in Syria looked remote. But then Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his US counterpart, John Kerry, managed to pull the world back from the brink.
From Moscow, we were joined by Andrey Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, a think tank set up by Russian Presidential decree which has the Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on its board.
We spoke to Ihor Zhovkva, one of President Zelenskyy’s top advisers, and began by asking him how he thought negotiations were going after Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday said they were proceeding satisfactorily.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accuses Ukraine of violating an accord reached in Geneva last week aimed at averting a wider conflict between the two neighbours.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, say they are keen for the choices of Ukrainians to be respected but the two men mean very different things.
John Kerry urges Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to engage in direct talks with Ukraine, while in Donetsk, pro-Russian protesters regain control of a local government building.
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The American Government says they have “communicated directly, privately to the Russian at very high levels that there will be catastrophic consequences for Russia is they use nuclear weapons in Ukraine”. It’s a sign of how high the tension is here, and how high the stakes are here. The Ukranian Government is anxiously watching voting…
Joe Biden says Vladimir Putin is a “war criminal.”
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has announced that sanctions have been imposed on a further 386 members of the Russian Duma for their support for the Ukrainian breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.