GENEVA, April 17 -- As top diplomats from EU, Russia, United States and Ukraine were gathering Thursday here for talks for the first time since the Ukraine crisis, they still can't agree on what the focus of the meeting should be.

According to the agenda, a series of bilaterals were planned ahead of a a plenary meeting.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held talks in the morning. Ashton already met with Ukrainian Acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya Wednesday night.

For the four-way talks, which were meant to seek ways to handle the rising tensions in the Eastern European country, the Russians, Americans and Ukrainians appeared to have different versions.

In a White House statement, the U.S. side expected the talks to focus on the need to de-escalate, the need for Russia to demobilize its troop presence on the border with Ukraine, the need for armed separatist groups within Ukraine to disband and disarm, and for the Ukrainian government to discuss the measures it intends to take when it comes to constitutional reform and decentralization.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reportedly said earlier that the talks would discuss the de-escalation of the on-the-ground situation, disarmament of illegal formations, constitutional reform and elections.

The top Russian diplomat stressed that Moscow would seek efforts to mediate the situation and would persuade the government in Kiev to listen to opinions and desires of Ukrainians living in the eastern and southern part of the country," having warned that the use of army or other armed forces may possibly make violence escalate.

He said that Russia would persuade leaders of Ukraine to start in words and actions, initiating a judicial reform process, in order to solve the root of the crisis.

But Ukraine side insisted that the talks would focus on de-escalation rather than its internal affairs.

Deshchytsya, who arrived here Wednesday, said that the main objective it planned to put on the agenda was the de-escalation of situation in the eastern Ukraine and restoration of its economic and trade relations with Moscow.

Moreover, he said Ukraine would also seek cancellation of the Russian parliament's decisions on the accession of the Crimea peninsula and on the deployment of Russia's armed forces in Ukraine.