Biden to meet Ukraine leaders as Russia, US trade jabs over crisis

KIEV: US Vice President Joe Biden will meet Ukraine´s new pro-Western leaders on Tuesday in a symbolic show of America´s support for Kiev as Washington and Moscow blamed each other for violating a peace deal to ease the country´s crisis.

The meetings, on the second day of Biden´s two-day visit to Ukraine, take place after the US and Russia put a radically different spin on a crunch telephone call between their diplomatic chiefs on reviving the accord reached last week in Geneva.

Under the deal, signed by Ukraine, Russia, the United States and the European Union, pro-Kremlin rebels holding a string of eastern towns were supposed to disarm and give up the buildings they have seized.

The accord was meant to reduce tensions in the worst confrontation between Washington and Moscow since the Cold War. US Secretary of State John Kerry called on Moscow to put pressure on the pro-Russian separatists, which Washington sees as backed by Russia.

However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Washington to influence the Ukrainian government, which Moscow accuses of "grossly breaching" the Geneva deal.

Kerry told Lavrov that "concrete steps" to defuse the crisis should include "publicly calling on separatists to vacate illegal buildings and checkpoints, accept amnesty and address their grievances politically", said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

In Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry said Lavrov had asked Kerry to "pressure Kiev to stop hotheads from provoking a bloody conflict and to encourage the Ukrainian authorities to strictly fulfil their obligations", the Russian foreign ministry said.

Lavrov also accused Ukraine´s government of an "inability and unwillingness" to rein in Pravy Sektor ("Right Sector"), an ultra-nationalist group the separatists blamed for an attack Sunday on one of their checkpoints in the flashpoint town of Slavyansk.

The shootout, started by unidentified attackers, broke a brief Easter truce and killed at least two separatist rebels.