(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) US Secretary of State John Kerry has announced additional multi-national talks in the coming days on the crisis in Ukraine, and said that Western and Ukrainian diplomats are calling for face-to-face meetings between Kiev and Moscow to ease the military emergency in Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.
Kerry spoke in Paris last night, after he and British Foreign Secretary William Hague met separately with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and with Ukrainian interim Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsi
Kerry said "intense (multi-national) discussions" would take place later this wee
The meeting in Paris was supposed to be about Lebanon, but Kerry arrived at the Elysee Palace with his focus squarely on Ukrain
The talks with Russia's Sergei Lavrov and other European Foreign ministers on Wednesday in Paris are increasingly seen as a diplomatic opportunity to defuse the on-going crisi
Earlier, at a separate meeting, Kerry, his British counterpart William Hague and Deshchytsia called for the immediate deployment of international observers in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, near the Russian borde
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov did not attend that meetin
Renewing calls for Russia to send troops back to the barracks, Kerry also said he expects to meet with Russia's Lavrov in Rome on Thursda
He added that there are 'a number of ideas on the table' to resolve the crisis in Ukraine, but that he will first consult with President Obam
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said earlier the United States and Britain are pursuing "every diplomatic opportunity" to bring Russian and Ukrainian officials into contact with each othe
Hague said there will be "costs and consequences" for Russia if diplomatic progress is not mad
He said Russia should understand that its pattern of intervening in countries like Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova will change its relationship with European nation
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