BBC Online :
Russia’s foreign minister has ruled out holding a new round of talks in Geneva in a bid to defuse the Ukraine crisis.
Sergei Lavrov said there was no point as last month’s accord between the US, EU and Russia had not been implemented.
He spoke after a Council of Europe meeting, where ministers were expected to support the Ukrainian authorities’ plans for a 25 May presidential poll.
Lavrov said it would be “unusual” for it to take place when the army was being used against the population.
Ukrainian acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia said Ukraine was ready to back a new round of talks in Geneva as long as Moscow supported presidential elections.
“If Russia is ready to commit itself to support these elections and to eliminate this threat and eliminate its support for the extremist elements in Ukraine, we are ready to have such a round of meetings,” he said at a news conference.
In recent days, security forces have launched a crackdown on pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country, triggering clashes outside the town of Sloviansk.
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on Tuesday that four soldiers and an estimated 30 separatists had been killed in the “anti-terrorism operation”.
Fierce fighting in Sloviansk on Monday was followed by sporadic sniper fire, as the BBC’s Fergal Keane reports
He said that up to 800 well-trained militants armed with large-calibre weapons and mortars were hiding among civilians in the town, where government buildings have been seized and checkpoints set up.
A Russia Today reporter in Sloviansk said residents were stockpiling food and there were barricades on almost every road.
Meanwhile, many flights in and out of Donetsk were suspended. The Ukrainian aviation authorities gave no reason for the move.
New checkpoints were earlier set up around Kiev. The interior ministry said it wanted to prevent the movement of weapons and explosives.
