Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Ben Brown says Russian forces prevented him from speaking to Ukrainian staff at the gates 
 
 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has held talks with counterparts from the US and key EU states to try to resolve the crisis in Ukraine. 
 
 After the talks Mr Lavrov said it was agreed to continue discussions in the coming days but admitted that everyone was "concerned" at events. 
 
 US Secretary of State John Kerry said the talks were "tough" but that there were some concrete ideas to work on. 
 
 The EU earlier offered 11bn euros ($15bn; £9bn) of aid to Ukraine. 
 
 European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the package of loans and grants over the next couple of years was "designed to assist a committed, inclusive and reforms-oriented government" in Kiev. 
 
 Analysis In return for its billions, the EU wants an inclusive government in Ukraine. That does not sound all that far off from what the Russian foreign minister said when he demanded a return to the 21 February agreement signed in Kiev. It spoke of a government of national unity. However, I am told that is the wrong interpretation, as the EU believes the administration it is seeking is already in place. As for the money, some 600m euros is already there. The rest of the 11bn euros needs to be signed off by member states and the European Parliament. Of that, some 5bn euros will come directly from the biggest investor in Ukraine, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). While Mr Barroso said the money would be handed over in the next two years, the EBRD is talking about the next five or six. So while this is a substantial sum, it will be disbursed slowly. 
 
 Ukraine's finance ministry has predicted it needs $35bn to rescue the economy. 
 
 The EU also froze the assets of 18 Ukrainians, accused of involvement in a deadly crackdown on protesters. 
 
 In other developments: 
 
 Hundreds of pro-Russian demonstrators have stormed the regional government building in Donetsk for the second time in recent days 
 
 Gunmen in Crimea threatened the UN secretary-general's envoy, Robert Serry, but he is reported safe 
 
 Russian forces have seized two Ukrainian missile-defence sites in Crimea, according to unconfirmed reports 
 
 Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discuss crisis in telephone call 
 
 Nato pledge 
 
 Mr Lavrov met Mr Kerry and counterparts from the UK, Germany and France on the sidelines of a long-planned conference on Lebanon in Paris. 
 
 The Russian minister said it was agreed that all sides needed to respect an EU-brokered peace deal signed last month. 
 
 The US state department, however, denied any agreement had been reached. 
 
 The 21 February deal granted major concessions to the opposition, but pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych fled before it could be implemented. 
 
 One thing that makes Vladimir Putin mad is the feeling that he is being deceived Putin's calculations in Ukraine Media see new phase in Kremlin approach 
 
 "We had a long day of discussions on Ukraine," Mr Lavrov said. 
 
 "We are all concerned at what is happening there. We agreed to continue those discussions in the days to come... and that's it." 
 
 Mr Kerry said he had some concrete ideas to take back to President Barack Obama, adding: "I'd rather be where we are today than where we were yesterday." 
 
 Nato and Russia held parallel talks in Brussels. 
 
 Afterwards, Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the organisation was reviewing all cooperation with Russia and was stepping up its engagement with the government in Kiev. 
 
 The US and Russia had appeared far from compromise in the lead-up to the Paris talks. 
 
 The US wants independent observers in the flashpoint region of Crimea and direct talks between Kiev and Moscow. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Troops believed to be Russian servicemen are in control of Ukrainian military bases in Crimea 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Mourners at Kiev's Independence Square remember the 88 protesters who died in clashes with police 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Pro-Russian protesters stormed the Donetsk government building hours after they were forced out 
 
 Russia was expected to call for greater representation for Ukraine's Russian-speaking areas in the Kiev government. 
 
 Leaked call 
 
 In the US, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel announced plans to expand US military co-operation with Poland and Baltic states. 
 
 Analysis The first of two sophisticated naval landing ships being built in France for the Russian navy is to set sail on Wednesday afternoon for its initial sea trials. The vessel - the Vladivostok - is based upon the Mistral class already in service with the French navy. The deal was signed in June 2011. The vessel can operate smaller landing craft and helicopters and would significantly enhance Russia's amphibious capabilities. The deal to sell such a sophisticated piece of equipment to Moscow has always been controversial; even more so today given the crisis in Ukraine with the French government insisting that if there is no de-escalation of tensions, then rapid EU sanctions could follow. The timing is perhaps a little delicate for Paris, with high-level talks on the crisis under way in the French capital. But at least this is not the Vladivostok's sister vessel that is putting to sea - that is to be named Sevastopol. 
 
 He said the US would step up joint aviation training with Poland, and increase its participation in Nato's mission to police the air space of Baltic countries. 
 
 The announcement was a direct response to concerns raised last week by Poland, he said. 
 
 Meanwhile, a recording of a phone conversation between EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet has been leaked on the internet. 
 
 In the recording, Mr Paet told Baroness Ashton that there was an "increasing understanding" in Ukraine that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych's government was not responsible for the deaths of police and protesters during clashes last month in Kiev. 
 
 He said some Ukrainians believed elements from within the new regime in Kiev had employed snipers. 
 
 He said Ukrainian doctor Olga Bogomolets had told him that victims from both sides were shot by snipers using the same weapons. 
 
 However, Dr Bogomolets told the UK's Telegraph newspaper that she had never had access to victims from the government side and was unable to comment on how they had been killed. 
 
 Mr Paet confirmed that the conversation with Baroness Ashton had taken place on 26 February. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Sergei Lavrov accused protesters of conducting an "armed coup d'etat" 
 
 In a news conference on Wednesday, he called for an inquiry into the deaths in Kiev, but warned against using his comments to discredit the new government. 
 
 "I call for journalists to treat this recording very carefully. I was talking about the theories there were about what happened in Ukraine," he said. 
 
 Mr Yanukovych fled Ukraine shortly after the bloodshed and is now in Russia. 
 
 Moscow has since flooded the Crimea region with military personnel, claiming that Mr Yanukovych had asked for their help. 
 
 The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) says it has sent 35 unarmed military monitors to Ukraine in response to a request from Kiev. ||||| Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton enters the courtyard at the Union Bank Building where she spoke at the annual Boys and Girls Club fundraiser luncheon in Long Beach, Calif., on March 4, 2014. (Photo by Brittany Murray/Long Beach Press Telegram) 
 
 LONG BEACH >> Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday compared recent actions by Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine to those implemented by Adolf Hitler in the late 1930s. 
 
 Putin’s desire to protect minority Russians in Ukraine is reminiscent of Hitler’s actions to protect ethnic Germans outside Germany, she said. 
 
 Putin has been on a campaign to give Russian passports to anyone who has Russian connections, Clinton said. 
 
 The Russian leader has recently done so in the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which, Clinton said, is similar to what happened in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. Hitler resettled tens of thousands of ethnic Germans who were living in parts of Europe to Nazi Germany. 
 
 Clinton made her comments at a private event benefiting the Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach. 
 
 “Now if this sounds familiar, it’s what Hitler did back in the 30s,” she said. “All the Germans that were ... the ethnic Germans, the Germans by ancestry who were in places like Czechoslovakia and Romania and other places, Hitler kept saying they’re not being treated right. I must go and protect my people and that’s what’s gotten everybody so nervous.” 
 
 Last week, Putin put Russian troops on the Ukrainian peninsula in Crimea, insisting that Russia has a right to protect its interests and Russian-speakers in Crimea and elsewhere in Ukraine. However, there has been no sign of ethnic Russians facing attacks in Crimea, where they make up about 60 percent of the population, or elsewhere in Ukraine. The decision followed a new government coming to power last week in Ukraine following months of pro-democracy protests against the now-fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych, and his decision to turn Ukraine toward Russia instead of the European Union. 
 
 Putin is a man “who believes his mission is to restore Russian greatness,” Clinton said. 
 
 That includes reasserting control of what used to be countries under the former Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, she said. 
 
 “When he looks at Ukraine, he sees a place that he believes is by its very nature part of Mother Russia.” 
 
 If Ukraine and Russia are to reach any kind of compromise, negotiations may start in Crimea, Clinton said. 
 
 “I think that’s where the negotiations will start,” she said. 
 
 Clinton, a possible Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, also noted that Secretary of State John Kerry is in Kiev while Russia has agreed to meet with NATO in Brussels. 
 
 “So everybody is hoping that there will be a negotiation but a negotiation that respects Ukraine and doesn’t ratify a reoccupation by Russia of Crimea,” she said. “So it’s a real nail-biter, right now, but nobody wants to up the rhetoric. Everybody wants to cool it in order to find a diplomatic solution and that’s what we should be trying to do.” 
 
 Clinton was in downtown Long Beach for a private event benefiting the Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach. 
 
 She and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, are major supporters of the national organization, which recently announced a partnership with The Clinton Foundation to give nearly 4 million at-risk children in the U.S. more access to nutritious foods. It’s a partnership that began with pilot programs throughout the U.S., including Los Angeles County. 
 
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 Clinton arrived after 1 p.m. at the law offices of Kessal, Young & Logan, where she took pictures with some of the 250 people who attended the event, including Mayor Bob Foster and several city officials. 
 
 After talking about the importance of the Boys and Girls Clubs work with children, Clinton spent about 40 minutes answering questions that ranged from what her favorite Girl Scout cookie is — it’s peanut butter — to breaking barriers to her opinion on the Affordable Care Act. 
 
 On being a trailblazer for women, Clinton said she has been fortunate to have opportunities that were not available to her mother and grandmother. 
 
 “I’ve been lucky, but I’ve also been up against the barriers and attitudes,” she said. “When I was coming up, there were scholarships I couldn’t get, schools I couldn’t go to.” 
 
 While she sees an enormous sea change in opportunities for women, Clinton said their participation, particularly in Congress and in corporate boardrooms, is “pretty abysmal.” 
 
 “Young women still today need mentoring and support and encouragement, and we need to do a better job in helping to deal with this difficult balance between work and family,” she said. 
 
 Clinton mentioned her work on a project called No Ceilings, an effort to measure the progress women have made in the past 20 years. She said there needs to be a focus on helping women who are still deprived of education, health care and the right to vote and other issues. 
 
 Clinton also spoke about the federal gridlock, which she finds “deeply disturbing.” 
 
 “That’s not how a great country should operate,” she said. 
 
 On the issue of health care, Clinton said she was proud of what President Barack Obama has achieved in signing the Affordable Care Act, which she said is already making a difference in many people’s lives. She touted the act’s emphasis on preventive care, which she advocated, the ability for adults to keep their children on health insurance until they are 26 and an insurer’s inability to discriminate against those with pre-existing medical conditions. 
 
 “There’s just an enormous amount of good in this bill,” she said, “and I think a lot of the characterization of it has been somewhat distorted.” 
 
 She acknowledged there are problems with the law that need to be addressed as things move forward, such as trying to keep costs down, ensuring that subsidies are sufficient and finding a way to pay for Medicaid. 
 
 “My hope is that all of these negative depictions of it don’t throw the baby out with the bath,” she said. 
 
 “But let’s stay committed to the goal of quality affordable health care for every American because it’s the right goal and over the long run it’s a smart economic position as well,” she said. 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report. 
 
 Contact Karen Robes Meeks at 562-714-2088. ||||| The Obama administration is prepared to take unilateral steps to sanction Russian individuals and business entities it holds responsible for corrupt and illegal behavior in Ukraine while it moves to persuade its European partners, some more reluctant than others, to consider more substantive sanctions to directly affect the Russian economy, according to senior administration officials. 
 
 The officials declined to provide a timeline but said Tuesday that Russian actions over the next few days would demonstrate whether President Vladimir Putin has any interest in an early de-escalation of the situation in the autonomous Ukrainian region of Crimea. 
 
 Even as it tried to provide Putin with a face-saving way out, the administration publicly challenged his stated reasons for deploying thousands of Russian troops across Crimea, where they have surrounded government buildings and military installations. 
 
 In statements of disbelief bordering on ridicule, President Obama and Secretary of State John F. Kerry dismissed Putin’s assertions that his troops are protecting ethnic Russians in Crimea threatened by pro-Western Ukrainians who took over the country last week in what Putin called a “coup.” 
 
 “Mr. Putin can throw a lot of words out there,” but “facts on the ground” tell a different story, Obama said following a Putin news conference in Moscow. 
 
 1 of 82 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Standoff in Crimea View Photos Russian troops and pro-Russian militants take up positions around the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine, surrounding government buildings and military installations. Caption Russian troops and pro-Russian militants take up positions around the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine, surrounding government buildings and military installations. March 8, 2014 Crimean ethnic Tatars protest on the roadside in the settlement of Kok-Asan with a banner reading “No war!” as Russian troops move toward Simferopol on Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Denis Sinyakov/European Pressphoto Agency Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 Kerry, during a visit to Kiev, said that Russian allegations of “ultranationalists” and “Nazis” on the streets of Ukraine were a “pretext” to further expand military occupation beyond Crimea, perhaps into Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland. 
 
 “Not a single piece of credible evidence supports any one of these claims,” Kerry said of Putin’s charges. “None.” 
 
 Administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity about internal deliberations, outlined four steps that Russia could take to remove the alleged threat to its own interests and avoid sanctions. 
 
 Any danger to ethnic Russians in Ukraine could be verified and addressed by the deployment of international monitors from the United Nations or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. 
 
 Charges that Ukraine’s current U.S.-backed interim government is illegitimate, they said, could be resolved with elections in Ukraine that are currently scheduled for May. 
 
 Russia does not have to withdraw its troops from Crimea, officials said, just return them to bases it currently operates there under a long-standing agreement with Ukraine. Although Putin said Tuesday that no additional Russian troops had been sent to Crimea, administration officials have assessed that at least 6,000 were deployed late last week, in addition to about 11,000 permanently stationed there under the existing agreement. 
 
 Finally, Russia should immediately begin a dialogue with the interim government to reconfirm its long-term interest in stable relations with the neighboring state. 
 
 Obama, speaking during a visit to Powell Elementary School in the District, said there had been “some reports that President Putin is pausing for a moment and reflecting on what’s happening.” 
 
 The situation could go one of three ways, officials said. 
 
 Putin could accept what’s on offer: sending his troops back to bases, accepting international monitors and opening a dialogue with the interim government. 
 
 Russia could escalate its aggression in Ukraine, sending troops into the eastern part of the country. That possibility, while not desirable, would likely strengthen the administration’s case to European allies, led by Germany, that are reluctant to impose full-scale sanctions. Obama spoke for an hour Tuesday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has indicated a desire to serve as an interlocutor with Russia. 
 
 Perhaps the most challenging scenario for the administration is the status quo, with Russian troops deployed throughout Crimea in a standoff. A similar situation has existed for years in breakaway parts of Georgia, where Russian troops have occupied northern regions of the country since 2008 while Western threats have dissipated. 
 
 Kerry plans to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov this week in Europe, diplomats said. 
 
 Speaking in Kiev, Kerry announced U.S. assistance of $1 billion in loan guarantees and technical help for the placeholder government and warmly endorsed the interim leaders as statesmen. Washington will continue to support a democratic Ukraine with money and diplomatic muscle, he said, but he made no mention of a miliary show of force to counter Russia’s intervention in Crimea. 
 
 In Washington, a senior lawmaker who is expected to help steer a Ukrainian aid package through Congress, said Tuesday that the pledge of $1 billion was “welcome news.” 
 
 “The time to act is now,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Edward R. Royce (R-Calif.) said in a statement shortly after Kerry announced the aid package. “We must place crippling sanctions on Russian high-ranking officials, state-owned banks and commercial enterprises, and key individuals behind the Russian intervention. Only by forcing Putin to reverse aggression and by supporting Ukraine in this time of national crisis can we hope to restore peace in the region.” 
 
 Congress plans to debate the aid next week. It is intended in part to help protect Ukraine from likely price increases for energy if Russian supplies are slashed. 
 
 During his tour of Kiev, Kerry visited a memorial to some of the scores of civilians killed when government forces opened fire last month on street protests against the Moscow-backed government of then-President Viktor Yanukovych. 
 
 Yanukovych fled to Russia more than a week ago and maintains he is still Ukraine’s legitimate leader. Putin agreed with that Tuesday, justifying Russian intervention in Crimea as a legal response to a request from its president. 
 
 Kerry has argued that Yanukovych lost his claim to power when he fled and that the new government deserves solid Western backing to begin work and to recover stolen national assets. 
 
 Walking along muddy Institutska Street, the site of dozens of deaths from sniper and automatic weapons fire last month, Kerry passed piles of soggy flowers, many snarled in barbed wire. Remnants of barricades built of tires, packing crates, garden gates and a mattress remained. 
 
 Most of the people he spoke to appeared to be supporters of the new government. 
 
 “We are helping you,” Kerry told one woman. “President Obama wants to help you. I want to help you.” 
 
 A few moments later, a group of people who identified themselves as Russians called out to Kerry, and he also told them that the United States wants to help. 
 
 Later, Kerry met with acting President Oleksandr Turchynov, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and other officials who until two weeks ago were part of opposition protests calling for Yanukovych’s ouster. 
 
 Gearan reported from Kiev. Ed O’Keefe in Washington contributed to this report. ||||| PARIS — An effort by the United States to broker the first face-to-face diplomatic meeting between Russia and Ukraine over the Crimea crisis failed on Wednesday, but Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart announced more discussions in the days ahead. 
 
 Their remarks left open the possibility of progress toward a solution to de-escalate one of the most serious East-West confrontations since the Cold War. 
 
 But while Mr. Kerry asserted Wednesday night that his deliberations here had yielded creative ideas and that he planned to resume talks with the Russian foreign minister in Rome on Thursday, there were also signs of how acute the crisis remained. 
 
 In Crimea, unidentified armed men threatened the United Nations special envoy, Robert Serry, forcing him to leave the region by plane. And the Pentagon took its first military steps since the crisis erupted to reassure Eastern European NATO members by announcing that six American F-15 fighters and one KC-135 refueling plane would be sent to reinforce the four American F-15s that currently police the airspace of Baltic nations. A program to carry out joint training with Poland’s air force will also be expanded, the Pentagon said. ||||| PARIS/KIEV High-level diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in Ukraine made little apparent headway at talks in Paris on Wednesday with Moscow and Washington at odds and Russia's foreign minister refusing to recognize his Ukrainian counterpart. 
 
 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said discussions would continue in the coming days in an attempt to stabilize the crisis and he expected to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov again in Rome on Thursday. 
 
 "Don't assume that we did not have serious conversations which produced creative and appropriate ideas on how to resolve this, we have a number of ideas on the table," he said after talks with ministers from Ukraine, Russia, Britain and France. 
 
 "I don't think any of us had an anticipation that we were coming here at this moment, in this atmosphere of heightened tension and confrontation, that we were suddenly going to resolve that here, this afternoon," Kerry said. 
 
 Russia had earlier rebuffed Western demands that its forces that have seized control of Ukraine's Crimea region should return to their bases. 
 
 NATO, at a meeting in Brussels, announced it was cutting back on cooperation with Russia to try to pressure it into backing down on Ukraine and suspended planning for a joint mission linked to Syrian chemical weapons. The alliance said it would step up engagement with Ukraine's new leadership. 
 
 The European Union offered Ukraine's new pro-Western government 11 billion euros ($15 billion) in financial aid in the next couple of years provided Kiev reaches a deal with the International Monetary Fund. Germany, the EU's biggest economy, also promised bilateral financial help. 
 
 Ukraine's new finance minister, Oleksander Shlapak, caused a fall in the Ukrainian bond and currency markets by saying his economically shattered country may start talks with creditors on restructuring its foreign currency debt. 
 
 COLD WAR 
 
 Russia and the West are locked in the most serious battle since the end of the Cold War for influence in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic with historic ties to Moscow that is a major commodities exporter and strategic link between East and West. 
 
 Ukraine pulled out of a trade deal with the EU under Russian pressure last year, sparking months of protests in Kiev and the February 22 ouster of Yanukovich, a Russian ally. 
 
 Ukraine says Russia has occupied Crimea, where the Russian Black Sea fleet is based, provoking an international outcry and sharp falls in financial markets on Monday, though they have since stabilized. 
 
 Lavrov said discussions on Ukraine would continue, but he did not talk to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchitsya, whose new government is regarded as illegitimate by Moscow. 
 
 As he left the Foreign Ministry in Paris, Lavrov was asked if he had met his Ukrainian counterpart. "Who is that?" the Russian minister asked. 
 
 Deshchitsya said he believed a "positive outcome" would emerge. Asked why he had not met Lavrov, he shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. 
 
 French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the situation was not easy. 
 
 "We are happy that this meeting in Paris allowed us get things under way. We agreed to try to find a peaceful solution in the coming days to get out of this crisis ... something moved in the right direction." 
 
 REPORTS DENIED 
 
 A senior U.S. State Department official denied Russian reports that Moscow and the Western powers had agreed that the Ukrainian government and opposition should to stick to a European Union-brokered peace deal. 
 
 "There were no agreements in this meeting, and there never will be without direct Ukrainian government involvement and absolute buy-in," the official said. 
 
 Wednesday's talks in Paris were an effort by France to capitalize on the presence of major power foreign ministers in the French capital for a long-scheduled meeting on Lebanon. 
 
 A first attempt to get Lavrov and Deshchitsya together at the Elysee Palace of President Francois Hollande failed, as did a subsequent attempt at the Foreign Ministry. 
 
 Meetings involving the foreign ministers of France, Russia, the United States, Poland, Germany, Poland and Ukraine took place in various combinations during the day, but never with the Russian and Ukrainian ministers in the same room together. 
 
 Later, President Barack Obama spoke by phone to British Prime Minister David Cameron and they expressed "grave concern over Russia's clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty", the White House said. 
 
 Earlier, Lavrov repeated Moscow's assertion - ridiculed by the West - that the troops that have seized control of the Black Sea peninsula are not under Russian command. 
 
 Asked whether Moscow would order forces in Crimea back to their bases, Lavrov said in Madrid: "If you mean the self-defense units created by the inhabitants of Crimea, we give them no orders, they take no orders from us." 
 
 A U.N. special envoy had to abandon a mission to Crimea after being stopped by armed men and besieged inside a cafe by a hostile crowd shouting "Russia! Russia!" Dutch diplomat Robert Serry flew to Istanbul after the incident. 
 
 In a sign of heightened tensions in eastern Ukraine, a pro-Russian crowd in Donetsk, Yanukovich's home town, recaptured the regional administration building they had occupied before being ejected by police. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL MONITORS 
 
 The West is pushing for Russia to return troops to barracks, accept international monitors in Crimea and Ukraine and negotiate a solution to the crisis through a "contact group" probably under the auspices of a pan-European security body. 
 
 Britain said it would join other European Union countries in freezing the assets of 18 Ukrainians suspected of misappropriating state funds, and Canada announced economic sanctions on senior members of the government of ousted President Viktor Yanukovich. 
 
 France said EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday could decide on sanctions against Russia if there is no "de-escalation" by then. Other EU countries, including Germany, are more reticent about sanctions. 
 
 President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday defended Russia's actions in Crimea, which used to be Russian territory, and said he would use force only as a last resort. 
 
 This eased market fears of a war after sharp falls on Monday, though Russian shares and the ruble slipped again on Wednesday, and Ukraine's hryvnia dropped against the dollar. 
 
 The Pentagon will more than double the number of U.S. fighter jets on a NATO air patrol mission in the Baltics and do more training with Poland's air force as it strives to reassure allies alarmed by the crisis in Ukraine, officials in Washington said on Wednesday. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Lina Kushch in Donetsk, Lesley Wroughton in Paris, Luke Baker and Justyna Pawlak in Brussels and Gabriel Baczynska in Moscow; Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
– Today will be a day of high-stakes diplomacy in Paris, as John Kerry meets with his Russian counterpart for the first time since Russia's invasion of Crimea—an invasion Russia is denying has even happened. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today repeated Russia's assertion that those aren't Russian troops occupying the region, Reuters reports. "If you mean the self-defense units created by the inhabitants of Crimea, we give them no orders, they take no orders from us," he said. Black Sea Fleet troops are in their usual positions, he said, and while "vigilance measures" had been taken, "we will do everything not to allow any bloodshed." Such denials have met derision in the West. Today will also see Lavrov meet with French President Francois Hollande and foreign ministers from Germany and the UK. NATO and Russia are also holding parallel talks in Brussels. Meanwhile, EU officials today offered the Ukraine a $15 billion aid package, to be delivered over two years, the New York Times reports. The Obama administration is simultaneously preparing unilateral sanctions against Russian businesses and individuals, the Washington Post adds. In other news: Pro-Russian protesters are turning away families seeking to bring food to the Ukrainian bases that haven't surrendered to Russian forces, the BBC reports. Russia may have seized control of two Ukrainian missile defense sites, according to an unconfirmed Interfax report. Hillary Clinton took the anti-Russian rhetoric to a new level in an appearance yesterday. "If this sounds familiar, it's what Hitler did back in the '30s," she said, referring to Vladimir Putin's push to give Russian passports to ethnic Russians in the Ukraine, according to the Long Beach Press Telegram. The Nazis resettled ethnic Germans in Germany in the late '30s.