PARIS (AP) — Attempts to foster the highest-level diplomatic meeting between Russia and Ukraine since Moscow ordered troops into Ukraine’s strategic Crimea region fell short Wednesday as Western officials scrambled for even small successes to keep the tense situation from escalating.

Ukraine Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia said he canceled a flight home to Kiev after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged him to stay in Paris on the outside chance that Russia’s top diplomat might agree to talk. But separate evening meetings in the same building ended without Deshchytsia and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov crossing paths.