London: The United States and Russia on Friday failed to resolve a Cold-War-style crisis sparked by Moscow`s military intervention in Crimea and the Ukrainian peninsula`s weekend referendum on joining Kremlin rule.
US Secretary of State John Kerry met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in London with few hopes that Sunday`s Moscow-backed referendum in the strategic Black Sea peninsula that has been seized by Kremlin troops could be averted or delayed.
But US officials indicated that they still expected Moscow to avoid taking the extra step of actually annexing the region of two million mostly Russian speakers in a move that would escalate the biggest East-West showdown since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.
Lavrov however told reporters after more than three hours of talks with Kerry at the lavish US ambassador`s residence in central London that Russia and the West still had "no common vision" on Ukraine.
"We have no common vision of the situation," said Lavrov. "Differences remain."
Lavrov added that Russia would "respect the will of the Crimean people" in the referendum result.
US President Barack Obama had only moments earlier said in Washington that he still held out hope of a diplomatic solution while warning Moscow of "consequences" if none was found.
The self-declared pro-Kremlin head of Crimea who initially called the controversial referendum gave Western negotiators some hope by indicating that he did not expect Russia to annex his region right away.
"It would take a maximum of one year," Sergiy Aksyonov told reporters in the Crimean capital of Simferopol.
Ukraine itself remained a tinderbox as more than 8,000 Russian troops staged drills near its eastern border while NATO and US reconnaissance aircraft and fighters patrolled the skies of the ex-Soviet state`s EU neighbours to the west.
Kerry has warned Russia that Washington and Europe could announce a "very serious" response as early as Monday if Moscow does not pull back the troops who seized control of Crimea days after the pro-Kremlin regime fell in Kiev last month.
"The first thing that Secretary Kerry will say is `will you use your influence to buy time and space for negotiations to take place?`," one US official said ahead of the Kerry- Lavrov talks.
Yet Russia still refuses to recognise the legitimacy of the Western-leaning team that has taken power in Kiev -- a move that threatens to shatter President Vladimir Putin`s dream of rebuilding a Soviet-type empire.
The diplomatic drama played out before a global audience at the United Nations yesterday when Ukraine`s new prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk turned to Moscow`s UN representative Vitaly Churkin and asked him directly: "Do the Russians want war?"
Churkin replied that Russia did not. But he also repeated Putin`s argument that Yatsenyuk and his allies had conducted the "forceful overthrow" of Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych that created a "government of victors" and not of Ukraine`s democratic majority.
Deadly violence meanwhile returned to Ukraine for the first time since nearly 90 people were killed in a week of carnage before the fall of the pro-Kremlin regime as a pro-Kiev protester was stabbed to death in the mostly Russian-speaking city of Donetsk.
The local health service said a 22-year-old man died and 16 people were wounded in unrest that erupted when pro-Kiev demonstrators were attacked by pro-Moscow protesters.
Ukraine`s acting President Oleksandr Turchynov blamed the death on separatists "sent in" from Russia.
"These people and the Kremlin do not care about the lives of those they claim to be protecting," Turchynov said in a statement.
But the Russian foreign ministry blamed the violence on the new leaders` inability to "have the situation under control" and once again reaffirmed its right to intervene in its western neighbour`s affairs.
"Russia recognises its responsibility for the life of its compatriots and fellow citizens in Ukraine and reserves the right to protect people," the Russian foreign ministry said.
