You're reading: Bloomberg Businessweek: Putin vows to fight for compatriots in Ukraine as powers meet

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he “hopes” he won’t have to use his “right” to send troops to Ukraine as officials from the two countries met with their counterparts from the U.S. and Europe over the crisis. Ukrainian police killed three pro-Russian fighters and wounded 13 after an attack on a national guard base in the southeast Ukrainian city of Mariupol overnight, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on Facebook today. Putin rejected claims from Ukraine that he’d deployed troops there and said he would fight to defend compatriots in other countries.

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