United States Secretary of State John Kerry speaks during a meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague in Downing Street in central London on Friday. Kerry arrived in London on an 11th-hour mission to head off a possible Russian annexation of Crimea on the heels of a breakaway vote by the Ukrainian region. AFP PHOTO
LONDON: The United States (US) and Russia on Friday were set to launch a round of last-gasp diplomacy, two days before Crimea votes to secede from Ukraine in a referendum that has sparked the biggest East-West showdown since the Cold War.