LONDON: US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will make no decision on Ukraine until after Sunday's referendum on the region of Crimea.
Mr Kerry said after six hours of talks with foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in London that the Russian “made it clear that President Putin is not prepared to make any decision regarding Ukraine until after the referendum on Sunday.”
The United States and Russia on Friday launched a round of 11 hour diplomacy just two days before Crimea votes to secede from Ukraine in a referendum that has sparked the biggest East West showdown since the Cold War.
US Secretary of State John Kerry met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in London a day after bloodshed returned to the streets of Ukraine with the stabbing death of a man in clashes between pro Moscow and pro Kiev supporters in the eastern city of Donetsk.
“This is a difficult situation we are in,”Mr Lavrov told Mr Kerry at the start of their meeting in London.
