PARIS:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday resisted Western
pressure to meet his Ukrainian counterpart but said talks with the
United States and others would continue in coming days.
At the end
of a day of intense diplomatic negotiations in Paris, Lavrov left the
French foreign ministry without having held a hoped-for meeting with
acting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya.
The United
States, backed by Britain, France and Germany, had urged Lavrov to agree
to a face-to-face meeting as a signal of Moscow's willingness to
de-escalate the current stand-off with the West over Russia's actions on
the Crimean peninsula.
In a short statement, Lavrov said his
departure did not mean an end to efforts to resolve the current crisis.
"We had a long day of discussions on Ukraine," the veteran Russian
diplomat said. "We are all concerned at what it is happening there.
"We
agreed to continue those discussions in the days to come to see how
best we can help stabilise, normalise the situation and overcome the
crisis. "The discussions will continue, and that's it."
Lavrov
had earlier held two bilateral meetings with US Secretary of State John
Kerry. After the second session, the Russian claimed it had been agreed
that Ukraine should uphold a February 21 deal signed between now-ousted
president Viktor Yanukovich and the opposition.
US officials
denied that this had been agreed, insisting that such a deal could be
reached only with the involvement of the Ukraine government that has
replaced Yanukovich's administration.
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