Putin Claims That The US Is Attempting To Drag Russia Into A Conflict.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia has accused the United States of attempting to drag his country into a conflict in Ukraine.
He said America's goal was to use the situation as a pretext to impose further sanctions on Russia, in his first substantive comments on the subject in several weeks.
He also claimed that the US was dismissing Russia's worries regarding Nato forces in Europe.
Tensions are rising in Ukraine due to a Russian troop build-up near the country's borders.
Nearly eight years after seizing Crimea and backed a deadly revolt in Ukraine's eastern regions, Russia disputes Western charges that it is planning an invasion.
Moscow, for its part, accuses Ukraine's government of failing to carry out an international agreement to restore calm to the country's eastern regions, where at least 14,000 people have been dead and Russian-backed insurgents hold large swaths of land.
Mr Putin said during meetings in Moscow with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban: "The United States appears to be less concerned with Ukraine's security... and more interested with containing Russia's development. In this respect, Ukraine is merely an instrument for achieving this goal."
Rivalry between Russia and the United States, which still have the largest nuclear arsenals in the world, extends back to the Cold War (1947-89). Ukraine was a vital portion of the communist Soviet Union at the time, second only to Russia in importance.
Mr Putin claimed that the United States had dismissed Moscow's concerns in response to Moscow's demands for legally enforceable security guarantees, including a halt to Nato's eastward expansion.
He predicted that if Ukraine's request to join Nato is accepted, it will drive the rest of the alliance into a confrontation with Russia.
"Imagine Ukraine becoming a member of NATO, and a military campaign [to reclaim Crimea] begins," Russian President Vladimir Putin stated. "Are we going to fight alongside NATO?" Has anyone considered this? It seems they haven't.