further action against ukraine. in the meantime, diplomats are pressuring yanukovych into cutting a deal. foreign ministers travelled to meet with him this morning. we got word that angela yes,le has reached out to yanukovych personally, encouraging him to accept the e.u.'s help with the peace negotiations. meanwhile, the chaos itself has now spread beyond kiev to at least four other cities in the country, and threatens to grow worse with each passing hour. as a result, president obama is trying to keep the focus off of broader tensions and on the need to stop the fighting in the short term. >> our approach as the united states is not to see these as some cold war chessboard in which we're in competition with russia. our goal is to make sure that the people of ukraine are able to make decisions for themselves about their future. >> steven piefer served as u.s. ambassador to ukraine during the