UpdateUS-Russia hold talks on Ukraine as EU backs massive aid package

US and Russian top diplomats headed for crucial talks on Ukraine on Wednesday as the EU unveiled an aid package worth at least €11 billion (HK$117 billion) to support the country’s new pro-Western leaders.

The talks in Paris to defuse the worst East-West stand-off since the cold war came as pro-Moscow forces seized part of two missile bases in Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, although all missiles remained in Ukrainian hands.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia’s Sergei Lavrov were meeting for the first time since Ukraine’s Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted late last month after three months of protests which left nearly 100 dead.

US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday Russia was “not fooling anyone” after it claimed it had no troops operating in Crimea, where pro-Russian forces have taken control.

Lavrov reiterated its claim on Wednesday, saying: “If they are the self-defence forces created by the inhabitants of Crimea, we have no authority over them. They do not receive our orders.”

But while stepping up diplomatic pressure Washington – with the support of European heavyweights France, Germany and Britain – is also seeking to offer President Vladimir Putin a way out of the crisis in the ex-Soviet state.

But Obama also spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday and agreed on the importance of a “de-escalation” with the deployment of international observers and the start of talks between Moscow and Kiev, a US official said.