williams in crimea's capital with the latest. thanks for joining us. >> reporter: that meeting today in london between lavrov of secretary of state john kerr y went onor six hours. there was no break through and it looks as if russia is moving rapidly towards the annexation of crimea, something they'll formalize soon of sunday's referendum of the we could see sanctions from europe and the u.s. as early as next week. now, as you mentioned, there has been a buildup of russian troops on the ukrainian border. president putin said that they had no intention of invading ukraine but don't forget also he did say he had no intention of annexing crimea a week or two back. that is creating a lot of concern in europe and washington and of course here in ukraine. so very tense weekend as we get close to that referendum, ronan. >> thank you so much. nbc news correspondent ian williams, we'll come back and this story is developing fast. >>> coming up later in this hour, a guest i'm very excited about, also on the international front, former british prime minister gordon brown. what he's saying needs to be done about syria's children. you won't want to miss it. cri