VIENNA: The United States warned Russia on Thursday that its ties with the West can never recover until it pulls its forces out of Ukraine, as OSCE foreign ministers met in Vienna.

Diplomats had hoped that meetings on the sidelines of the 57-nation body would make progress on agreeing terms for a UN peacekeeping force for war-torn Ukraine.

But the major powers in the dispute are still far apart, and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson went so far as to declare that the stand-off over Ukraine was the single most important obstacle to warmer US relations with Moscow.

Tillerson met Foreign Mi­­n­ister Sergei Lavrov behind closed doors, but when they had addressed the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) council earlier in the day, they traded allegations about interference in Ukraine and there appeared little room for compromise.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2017