RUSSIA: Addressing the Ukraine crisis for the first time since December, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said on Tuesday that the US and NATO had “ignored” Russian concerns in their responses to Kremlin demands.
The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters that Russian officials were still drafting a formal response to American security proposals aimed at de-escalating the Ukraine crisis, and that they would be ready as soon as Putin “sees fit”.
But Putin, at a news conference with Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, said it was clear “that the principal Russian concerns turned out to be ignored”.
The Kremlin has demanded that NATO not expand eastward, guaranteeing that Ukraine will never join the alliance, and that Nato draw down forces in Eastern European countries that were once part of the Soviet Union or under its domination. American and European officials have dismissed such demands as non-starters. Russia has massed more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders, and could be preparing for an invasion, US officials have warned.
Putin last addressed the issue on December 23, when he took a combative tone at his annual news conference in response to a British journalist who asked whether he would guarantee that Russia would not invade Ukraine. - THE TELEGRAPH INDIA
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