Top officials from Ukraine and Russia met in Paris on Wednesday for talks to defuse tensions on their border, a meeting seen as a positive step by France despite fresh warnings from the US that Moscow was preparing military action.
The meeting in the French capital between the Kremlin's deputy chief of staff Dmitry Kozak and senior Ukrainian presidential advisor Andriy Yermak, alongside French and German diplomats, was seen by Paris as holding out faint hope of a thaw.
