Diplomatic exit for Ukraine? Talks, $15B in EU aid

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_UKRAINE_DIPLOMACY?SITE=VANOV&SECTION=BUSINESS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Diplomatic exit for Ukraine? Talks, $15B in EU aid
By LORI HINNANT and JUERGEN BAETZ
Associated Press
Mar 5, 9:10 AM EST

PARIS (AP) -- The European Union prepared a $15 billion aid package to Ukraine on Wednesday and froze the assets of 18 people blamed for looting the treasury of the nearly bankrupt country. The moves came as top diplomats from the West and Russia gathered in Paris to defuse tensions that have approached Cold War levels.

NATO was taking up the issue directly with Russia in an extraordinary meeting in Brussels of the military alliance, originally created as a counterbalance to the Soviet Union, and an international team of military observers headed to Crimea.

The ultimate goal in Paris is to get the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers in the same room for the first time in the rapidly evolving dispute whose stakes have risen steadily since the departure of the pro-Russian president and Moscow's takeover of the strategic Crimean Peninsula. Neither side ruled out a meeting during a day of fast-moving diplomacy.

"It will be a test this afternoon of whether Russia is prepared to sit down with Ukraine, and we will strongly recommend that they do so," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said.