John Kerry, US secretary of state, has emphasised America’s readiness to facilitate dialogue between Ukraine and Russia but warned that continued military escalation or moves to annex Crimea “would close any available space for diplomacy”, according to a senior US official.

His warning comes as Ukraine on Saturday suggested that international efforts to mediate in the dispute over Crimea had made “some small” progress, despite evidence of increasing tensions on the peninsula and in east-west relations. There were no reports of clashes in Crimea overnight.

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