Kerry in London for last-ditch Ukraine talks

With the clock ticking down to Crimea’s referendum on Sunday, Kerry was to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov seeking to put the brakes on any moves by Russian President Vladimir Putin to swiftly annex the peninsula.

Shortly before leaving the United States, the secretary of state admitted that it was all but impossible to stop the referendum organised by Crimea’s self-declared leaders from going ahead and warned there was no question that the pro-Russian ethnic majority would vote to move closer to Moscow.

Shortly after arriving in London, Kerry paid a visit to British Prime Minister David Cameron at his Downing Street residence ahead of his talks with Lavrov.

Cameron urged Russia and Ukraine to negotiate over Crimea and warned that failure to do so could trigger sanctions from the West.

He said: “We want to see progress as much as you do. We want to see Ukrainians and the Russians talking to each other.

“And if they don’t then there are going to have to be consequences.”

Kerry said: “Hopefully, I think we’re all hoping that we don’t get pushed into a place where we have to do all this. But we’ll see what happens.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *