Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the situation in conflict-affected eastern Ukraine was deteriorating. He said at a time when the West was accusing him of planning an attack on a neighboring country, AFP reports.
“Right now we are witnessing a worsening of the situation” in eastern Ukraine, Putin said at a news conference with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow. According to the Russian agency TASS, Putin stressed that the government in Kiev must sit at the negotiating table with the leaders of the separatists in Donbas and agree on a solution to this conflict, “the sooner the better.”
The head of the Kremlin also reiterated that extensive Russian military exercises near the Ukrainian border in recent weeks are not a threat. “These exercises are purely defensive in nature and do not endanger anyone,” AFP quoted Putin, who said, according to a spokesman, will personally oversee the maneuvers of Russia’s strategic forces on Saturday, including ballistic and guided missile launches.
Putin also said that Russia was ready for talks with the United States and NATO only if they include Moscow’s security requirements. These include promises of further non-enlargement of NATO to the east and the withdrawal of US troops from Central and Eastern Europe.
He added that he had spoken to Lukashenko about “the consolidation of the Russia-Belarus Common Defense Area” and agreed that both countries will continue to take collective action to protect their security “in the light of the growing military activity of NATO countries at the external borders of the Union of Russia and Belarus”.
