US, Russia talks on Ukraine end in failure

Top Russian and US diplomats utterly failed today to defuse the crisis over Ukraine, ending up at loggerheads following tense talks over the worst East-West clash since the Cold War.
After six hours of talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry, US officials said they "did not find common ground" and everything now depended on Russian President Vladimir Putin's reaction to Sunday's breakaway vote in Crimea.
Despite flying in early today from Washington for crisis talks only two days before Crimea is to decide whether to split away from Ukraine, Kerry acknowledged that his mad dash to London had been in vain.

Lavrov "made it clear that President Putin is not prepared to make any decision regarding Ukraine until after the referendum on Sunday," Kerry told reporters after their talks.
But he warned Moscow against any "backdoor annexation" of Ukraine's southern Black Sea peninsula such as by ratifying the vote in the Russian parliament.
Putin's decision will be "of enormous consequence with respect to the global community," Kerry said, adding any move to ratify Crimea's referendum would "fly in the face of every legitimate effort to try to reach out to Russia".