The United States has warned that the West will inflict punishing new sanctions if Russia and its allies in Ukraine disrupt a crucial presidential election just days away.
Kiev's interim leaders are battling to keep Ukraine from disintegrating ahead of the May 25 vote, pressing on with a military offensive to put down a bloody pro-Moscow insurgency in the eastern industrial heartland.
"Our message is really, quite simple: 'Let Ukraine vote. Let the Ukrainian people choose their future'," US Secretary of State John Kerry said at a meeting with European counterparts in London on Thursday.
He said the separatists who have seized over a dozen towns in a month of fighting and declared independence in two industrial regions in defiance of Kiev and the West were "sowing mayhem".
"Far from defending the rights of the people in the east they are seeking to speak for everybody through the barrel of the gun," Kerry told reporters.
He said the United States and its European allies would impose sectorial sanctions "if Russia or its proxies disrupt the elections".
The tough talk came as Ukraine pressed on with a military operation against rebels around Slavyansk, despite the launch of "national unity" talks in Kiev on Wednesday.
The round-table discussions are part of an initiative launched by the OSCE security body to try to resolve the escalating crisis on Europe's doorstep.
Crucially however, the rebels were not invited despite Western calls for inclusive talks.
Interim President Oleksandr Turchynov said his administration was ready to reach out to pro-Russians in the east but that the separatists must first lay down their arms.
"We will not yield to blackmail," he said on Wednesday.
"We are ready to listen to the people of the east but they must not shoot, loot or occupy government buildings."
Western leaders see the May 25 vote as crucial for the future of Ukraine after Russia's much criticised annexation of Crimea in March, which plunged relations between Moscow and the West to their lowest point since the Cold War.
President Vladimir Putin said last week Russia had withdrawn its estimated 40,000 troops from the border, but the West says it has seen no sign of a major pullback.
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