Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused the U.S. of leading it into a conflict with Ukraine that Moscow did not want while also lamenting demands for influence in Eastern Europe he said were being ignored.
Putin said in a news conference that the U.S. was trying to lead Russia into conflict in order to impose stiffer sanctions.
Russia has demanded that NATO not expand any more toward the east and also ban Ukraine from joining the military alliance. The U.S. has deemed these conditions to be non-starters.
Putin said Tuesday that it was clear “that the principal Russian concerns turned out to be ignored,” The New York Times reported.
On Monday, Russia delivered a written response to the United States’ proposal, with the contents left undisclosed. The State Department stated that it would be “unproductive to negotiate in public.”
A written response by the U.S. last week was also not disclosed, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated it had not satisfactorily addressed Russia’s demands.
“The document contains no positive response on the main issue” of Russia’s demands, Peskov said, though he added that it contained elements that could lead to “the start of a serious talk on secondary issues.”
There are currently more than 100,000 Russian troops gathered at the Ukrainian border. Western countries have warned that Russia may invade Ukraine soon, possibly using a false-flag operation to have a pretense for invading the former Soviet republic.
Russia has consistently denied these plans, in turn accusing the U.S. of making unfounded claims and arguing that it is allowed to do what it wants with its military within its own borders.
“It was the United States that came with its missiles to our home, to the doorstep of our home,” Putin said on Tuesday. “And you demand from me some guarantees. You should give us guarantees. You! And right away, right now.”
During the news conference, Putin said the U.S. was seeking to incite conflict in Ukraine in order to issue harsher sanctions against Russia, adding that the “most important task” for the U.S. was to “contain Russia’s development,” according to the Times.
“Ukraine is just an instrument of achieving this goal. It can be done in different ways, such as pulling us into some armed conflict and then forcing their allies in Europe to enact those harsh sanctions against us that are being discussed today in the United States,” said Putin.
“I can’t be like other politicians who are grateful to the United States just for being the United States,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said last week. He criticized the West’s approach of appearing to wait for an invasion before issuing sanctions and accused governments of inciting panic with their warnings of a Russian attack.
Updated: 2:08 p.m.