Ukraine crisis: US and Russia ministers end Paris talks Published duration 30 March 2014 Related Topics Ukraine conflict

media caption John Kerry speaks to the media after talks

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his US counterpart John Kerry have ended crisis talks on Ukraine with no sign of whether progress was made.

The meeting in Paris was hastily set up after President Vladimir Putin phoned President Barack Obama on Friday.

Russia has annexed Crimea and there are reports of thousands of Russian troops massed close to Ukraine's borders.

Earlier Mr Lavrov set out demands for a neutral and federal Ukraine, an idea Kiev called "full capitulation".

However, Mr Lavrov has categorically denied any plans for an invasion.

But he has stressed Moscow will protect the rights of ethnic Russians and Russian speakers, after pro-EU protests in Kiev led to the ousting of Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych. He had faced months of protests after pulling out of an association deal with Brussels.

On Sunday the US ordered its top general in Europe to return early from a trip to Washington.

Gen Philip Breedlove, Nato's supreme allied commander Europe, had been due to testify to Congress, but a Pentagon spokesman said his return was prudent "given the lack of transparency and intent from Russian leadership about their military movements across the border".

media caption Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov: "We have absolutely no intention of, or interest in, crossing Ukraine's borders"

Hours before the Paris talks were due to take place at the Russian ambassador's residence, Mr Lavrov told Russian state TV that Ukraine should come up with a new constitution "providing for a federal structure" and neutrality.

The Russian foreign minister said Moscow, the US and European Union should act as a support group for Kiev to begin a nationwide dialogue that did not involve the "armed radicals". Moscow claims that fascists have taken power in Ukraine, jeopardising the safety of Russian speakers.

In an interview on Saturday, he said Russia had been deceived after being promised "there would be no movement of Nato military infrastructure closer to our borders".

The Ukrainian foreign ministry said it deeply regretted Mr Lavrov's "patronising" remarks.

"At the point of its automatic rifles, this aggressor demands only one thing - Ukraine's full capitulation, its split and the destruction of Ukrainian statehood," said a statement carried by Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Nato's outgoing Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned on Sunday that Russia's government was "[flouting] the principle that every state is sovereign and free to choose its own fate".

Mr Putin is also thought to be demanding that Washington accepts Crimea's independence from Ukraine.

Separately, Moscow is keen to tackle the issue of Trans-Dniester, a pro-Russian separatist region of Moldova on the south-western border of Ukraine. It accuses Ukraine and Moldova of "blockading" the area while the EU and the US stay silent.

US officials are divided over whether Mr Putin is seeking to ease tensions or is still planning further military action, BBC Paris correspondent Christian Fraser reports.

The Pentagon believes Moscow has massed tens of thousands of troops close to Ukraine's eastern border.

Food, medicines and a field hospital are said to be among the supplies moved into position, officials say, which would not be necessary for any spring military exercise.

image copyright AFP image caption Russia has said it has no intention or interest in invading predominantly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine

UK Defence Secretary Philip Hammond told the BBC: "Everybody is concerned. We are concerned that there might be a further incursion in the territory of a sovereign nation."

The diplomatic push was initiated by President Putin, who spoke to President Obama for an hour late on Friday.

The next day, the US secretary of state abruptly diverted his flight from Saudi Arabia to Paris for Sunday's meeting. "We are getting closer in our positions," Mr Lavrov said on Saturday.

The White House, in its statement after Mr Putin's phone-call, said President Obama made clear that a de-escalation of the crisis could only take place "if Russia pulls back its troops and does not take any steps to further violate Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty".

media caption People in the Crimean capital Simferopol have been celebrating the change of the clocks to synchronise with the time in Moscow

As the rest of Europe put clocks forward by one hour on Sunday, Crimea aligned its time with Moscow, jumping two hours ahead. Hundreds of people waving flags greeted the time change in the capital, Simferopol.