Russia sets out demands for resolution to Ukraine crisis

Russia has set out demands for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in Ukraine, saying the former Soviet republic should be unified in a federation allowing wide autonomy to its various regions.

The demands were issued as US secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov met in Paris in another bid to calm tensions.

After a brief call to French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, Kerry sat down with Lavrov at the residence of the Russian ambassador to France to go over Moscow’s response to a US plan to de-escalate the situation as Russian troops continue to mass along the Ukrainian border.