BBC Online :
US Secretary of State John Kerry is holding talks on Ukraine with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in London, two days before a disputed referendum in Crimea.
Kerry was expected to warn Lavrov that the referendum and Russia’s military intervention in Crimea could trigger concerted US and EU sanctions.
He has warned of “very serious steps” if Russia annexes the region.
Russia insisted at the UN on Thursday it did “not want war” with Ukraine.
During an emergency meeting of the Security Council, Moscow’s ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin defended the right of Crimea, which is predominantly ethnic Russian, to decide whether or not to join the Russian Federation.
Russia’s military intervention followed the fall of Ukraine’s pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych on 22 February.
The Kerry-Lavrov talks and Crimean referendum dominate the media, with Ukrainian commentators gloomy while Russian papers scent victory.
Leonid Kravchuk, Ukraine’s first president, calls on the country to “immediately launch a bid to join Nato” and seek international peacekeepers, according to Den daily.
Pundit Stepan Havrysh writes in Hazeta that the referendum “will be rigged”, as the “illegal Crimean authorities have simply decided to join Russia”.
In Russia, Nezavisimaya Gazeta sees nothing to discuss. “Even the hottest heads in Washington now admit that the Crimea question is completely settled, a fait accompli”.
Moskovsky Komsomolets tabloid draws historical parallels. “Serious people are trying to scare us by asking ‘Do you realize how much it will cost to annex Crimea?’ Well, how much did it cost Britain to send its navy to war with Argentina for the completely useless Falklands?” Pro-government Izvestia sees the start of a “new ideology of reclaiming Russian lands”, for which President Putin will be “forgiven everything and anything”.
Russian historian Dmitry Shusharin is not so sure. “Crimea is a modern-day Pearl Harbour,” he writes in the Ukrainian daily Den.
Kerry had talks with UK Prime Minister David Cameron before his meeting with the Russian foreign minister at the US ambassador’s residence in central London.
“We want to see Ukrainians and the Russians talking to each other and if they don’t then there are going to have to be consequences,” Cameron told reporters during the meeting in Downing Street.
Before his arrival in London, Kerry urged movement on the Crimea referendum issue.
“If there is no sign of any capacity to be able to move forward and resolve this issue, there will be a very serious series of steps on Monday in Europe and here [in Washington] with respect to the options that are available to us.”
