http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/06/us-ukraine-crisis-idUSBREA1Q1E820140306
EU weighs Russia sanctions as Ukraine diplomacy falters
(Reuters) - European Union leaders were set to warn but not sanction Russia on Thursday over its military intervention in Ukraine after Moscow rebuffed Western diplomatic efforts to persuade it to pull forces in Crimea back to their bases.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov refused to meet his new Ukrainian counterpart or to launch a "contact group" to seek a solution to the crisis at talks in Paris on Wednesday despite intensive cajoling by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. The two men will meet again in Rome on Thursday.
Tension remained high in Ukraine's southern Crimea region, where a senior United Nations envoy was surrounded by a pro-Russian crowd, threatened and forced to get back on his plane and leave the country.
An emergency EU summit in Brussels is unlikely to adopt more than symbolic measures against Russia, Europe's biggest gas supplier, because neither industrial powerhouse Germany or financial center Britain are keen to start down that road.
The United States has said it is ready to impose sanctions such as visa bans, asset freezes on individual Russian officials and restrictions on business ties within days rather than weeks.
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