Paris talks on Ukraine overshadowed by hard line US-Russia rhetoric

Top officials from Ukraine and Russia met in Paris on Wednesday for talks facilitated by France and Germany. The dialogue, dealing with the situation in Eastern Ukraine, yielded some results, but coicdided with a US rejection of Russian demands to 'never allow' Ukraine join Nato. 

The talks between Russia and Ukraine held in the Elyséé Palace on Wednesday,  were 'not simple' but a new round of discussions have been scheduled in Berlin in two weeks' time.

According to the Kremlin's envoy Dmitry Kozak the main outcome of the four-way Normandy Format meeting was that "despite all the differences in interpretations, we agreed that the ceasefire [in eastern Ukraine] must be maintained by all the parties in line with the accords".

The talks lasted for eight and a half hours and yielded some results, including calls for a 'permanent ceasefire' between the warring parties in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Eastern Ukraine. 

More than 13,000 people have died in the fighting between Kyiv government forces and pro-Russian rebels.

The meeting in the French capital between the Kremlin's deputy chief of staff Kozak and senior Ukrainian presidential advisor Andriy Yermak - alongside French and German diplomats - was seen by Paris as working towards a faint hope of a thaw in relations.

"It's very encouraging that the Russians agreed to enter into this diplomatic format again," an aide to French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

US says 'no'

Meanwhile, the United States on Wednesday rejected Russia's demand to bar Ukraine from joining Nato and said it believed Moscow was ready to invade but offered what it called a new "diplomatic path" out of the crisis.

One month after Russia put forward sweeping security proposals, having sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine's border, the United States delivered a reply in coordination with Nato allies and said it was ready for any eventuality.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he would speak again in the coming days to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whom he met Friday in Geneva, amid a separate diplomatic initiative led by France.

US President Joe Biden, who spoke with European leaders by video-conference on Tuesday, said that any Russian military attack on Ukraine would trigger "enormous consequences" and could even "change the world".

The sanctions are expected to include new restrictions on US technology exports to Russia and Biden indicated that the US would also personally target Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

• Paris meeting between Russian, Ukranian officials criticized in Kyiv

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the threats as worthless because senior Russian officials were barred from holding assets abroad.

But such a move would do serious damage to diplomatic attempts to ease ratcheting tensions over Ukraine, he said.

"Politically, it's not painful, it's destructive," Peskov told reporters.

The Kremlin has previously said any US sanctions personally targeting Putin would be akin to crossing a red line, warning the move could result in a rupture of bilateral ties.

Invasion warnings

Assessments on whether Russia plans to use the 100,000 troops massed on Ukraine's border for an invasion of its pro-Western neighbour continue to differ.

Reiterating warnings from the White House, a top American diplomat said Wednesday that the US remained convinced that Putin was poised to use force against Ukraine by mid-February.

"I have no idea whether he's made the ultimate decision, but we certainly see every indication that he is going to use military force sometime perhaps [between] now and the middle of February," Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told an online forum.

But Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the number of Russian troops deployed along the border was not enough for a major attack.

He told reporters that troops posed "a threat to Ukraine" but they were "insufficient for a full-scale offensive".

Fears of a Russian invasion follow on from Moscow's annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and the capture by pro-Kremlin separatists of two self-proclaimed breakaway republics in Ukraine's east.

Diplomatic solution

The talks in Paris on Wednesday were the latest attempt to find a diplomatic solution to the mounting standoff following inconclusive discussions between Russian, US, European and Nato diplomats in previous weeks.

The main focus so far has been on separate negotiations between Russia and the United States to discuss the Kremlin's security demands in Europe, including that Ukraine should never become a member of the US-led Nato military alliance.

Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had warned in an address to lawmakers Wednesday that Moscow would take "all necessary measures" if it didn't receive constructive responses and if the West continued its "aggressive policy".

(With agencies)