Ukraine conflict
Putin accuses the US of ignoring Russian security interests
Russian President Vladimir Putin used Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orban’s visit to launch sharp attacks on the United States and NATO
© Youri Kochetkow / AFP
In Russia, Vladimir Putin meets with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban. The Russian President used the subsequent press statement for a broadside against the USA and NATO.
In the conflict over Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of only using the country as a means of containing Russia. “I have the impression that the United States is not so concerned about Ukraine’s security as that its main task is to contain Russia’s development,” the Kremlin chief said Tuesday after a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban .
Ukraine is “only one instrument to achieve this goal,” Putin said in Moscow. This could be sought in various ways, including by involving Russia in an armed conflict. “I hope that we will find a solution in the end,” said the President, referring to the Ukraine conflict. However, he accused the US and NATO of ignoring Russia’s security concerns.
Last week, the United States and NATO responded in writing to Russian demands for “security guarantees.” In the letters, Washington and NATO rejected a NATO waiver demanded by Putin for further eastward expansion and the withdrawal of US weapons from states in the former Soviet sphere of influence.
Putin: Russian concerns are ignored
“We are carefully analyzing the written responses from the United States and NATO,” Putin said. “But it is already clear that fundamental Russian concerns were ultimately ignored.” The US and NATO referred to “the right of states to decide freely how they want to ensure their security,” said the Russian head of state. In doing so, however, they ignored “the fact that it is impossible to allow one’s own security to be strengthened at the expense of the security of others”.
According to a report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made a similar statement in a letter to western countries. He accused them of strengthening their security at the expense of Russia, which violates existing international treaties and the principle of the indivisibility of security.
Secretary of State with telephone diplomacy
Lavrov again discussed the Ukraine crisis in a telephone call with his US colleague Antony Blinken on Tuesday. Blinken insisted on an “immediate Russian de-escalation and the withdrawal of soldiers and equipment from the borders with Ukraine,” said US State Department spokesman Ned Price afterwards.
A Russian invasion of the neighboring country would have “rapid and serious consequences,” Blinken warned. A US State Department official, who asked to remain anonymous, said Lavrov said there was no indication that Russia was prepared to de-escalate the situation.
After the talks, Lavrov accused the West of “not fulfilling its obligations or only fulfilling them selectively in its favour”. The two foreign ministers had already met in person in Geneva at the end of January; the encounter did not bring a breakthrough.
Hungarian Prime Minister Orban, one of Putin’s few allies in the ranks of NATO and the EU, described the differences between Western states and Russia in the conflict as “bridgeable”.
Crisis diplomacy in the Ukraine conflict has been going on for weeks. In a phone call with Putin on Tuesday, Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi called for “de-escalation,” his office said. Meanwhile, as a sign of solidarity, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson traveled to Kiev for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He warned of a “clear and present” danger to Ukraine, with a view to the Russian troop strength on the border.
In the past few weeks, Russia has massed more than 100,000 soldiers and heavy equipment on the Ukrainian border. The deployment of troops fuels fears that Russia is planning a major attack on Ukraine. The Kremlin denies any plans to attack Ukraine, but at the same time argues that it feels threatened by NATO.