The Russian president spoke for the first time this year on the Ukrainian crisis. He accused the United States of instrumentalizing Ukraine against Russia but left the door open for dialogue.
“We are analyzing the written responses received from the United States and NATO […] but it is already clear that basic Russian concerns have been ignored.”
Vladimir Poutine
President of Russia
Vladimir Poutine “hit back publicly at the West” Tuesday, February 1, “accusing the United States and NATO of using Ukraine to surround Russia and of ignoring Moscow’s concerns for its security”, notice The Washington Post.
During a press conference held with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Putin spoke for the first time since December publicly on the diplomatic crisis around Ukraine.
Without mentioning the deployment of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, the president reproached the United States for ignoring “three essential demands” sent by Moscow, cite The Guardian : end of NATO enlargement, commitment not to deploy ballistic weapons near Russian borders, withdrawal of NATO forces from Eastern European countries which have joined the alliance since 1997 .
“Draw us into conflict”
He also accused Washington “to seek to draw Russia into an armed conflict”, abstract The New York Times, quoting Putin :
Their main objective is the containment of Russia and Ukraine is just an instrument to achieve this goal. There are different ways to achieve this, such as dragging ourselves into armed conflict and then forcing their allies in Europe to adopt the very tough sanctions against us discussed today in the United States.”
“Imagine Ukraine being a member of NATO, full of weapons […] and launches a military operation in Crimea, which is Russian sovereign territory,” added President Putin, quoted by the Washington Post. “Do we owe the war to NATO? someone thought of that ? It seems not.”
A hoped-for solution
However, the New York Times observes that if Putin had threatened in December with measures “technico-military” unspecified, “He did not reiterate those threats on Tuesday, instead showing some optimism as he described ongoing diplomatic efforts. He noted that French President Emmanuel Macron may soon come to visit Moscow.
“I hope that in the end we will find a solution, even if it is not easy, we understand that”, said Vladimir Putin.