Vladimir Putin ready for more talks: US
New Delhi: President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday he hoped that Moscow and the West could find a solution to the raging security crisis over Ukraine, but he also accused the US of ignoring Russia’s security proposals in his first public comments on the growing crisis over Ukraine since December.
“I hope that in the end, we will find a solution, although it will not be simple,” Putin said, indicating he was ready for more talks with the West, which has accused Moscow of massing more than 100,000 troops on the border and plotting to invade Ukraine.
Putin told journalists he was unsatisfied with the US response to Russian demands that Nato remove troops and infrastructure from eastern Europe and agree never to accept Ukraine into the alliance.
“It’s already clear … that Russia’s principal concerns were ignored,” Putin said after talks with the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán.
“It seems to me that the United States is not so much concerned about the security of Ukraine… but its main task is to contain Russia’s development. In this sense, Ukraine itself is just a tool to reach this goal. This could be done in various ways,” Putin said.
The Russian leader said that if Ukraine joined NATO Russia could be sucked into an armed conflict with the military alliance over Moscow-annexed Crimea.
“Let’s imagine that Ukraine is a NATO country and begins a military operation in Crimea, on Russia’s sovereign territory, what do we have to fight the NATO alliance? Did anyone think about that? Looks like no.” Putin said.
Putin also said that French President Emmanuel Macron could come to Moscow for talks “in the near future”.
Russia has also continued deploying thousands of troops and offensive weapons to the Ukrainian border, appearing to threaten a strike if the Kremlin does not get its way.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, spoke with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in an effort to defuse the crisis earlier on Tuesday.
(_Vinayak)
