Putin Accuses West of “Using” Ukraine and Failing to Consider Russia’s Security “Concerns”

Presidente russo voltou a acusar os líderes ocidentais de quebrarem a promessa de não expandir a Otan

Russian president again accuses Western leaders of breaking their promise not to expand NATO | Photo: EFE/EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV
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The President of Russia , Vladimir Putin, accused this Tuesday (1st) of the United States of not being worried about the security of Ukraine, but of using the neighboring country as an “instrument” to “contain the development of Russia”.

“Drawing us into an armed conflict and imposing the toughest sanctions on us with the help of their allies in Europe. Or drag Ukraine into NATO, put offensive weapons there and encourage the ultranationalists to militarily resolve the issue of Donbass and Crimea, so that they too push us into an armed conflict.” from Hungary, Viktor Orbán.

“To avoid such a negative development of events – and we want to do it -, we really have to take into account the interests of all countries, including Russia, and find a variant for the solution of this problem”, he added.

He again accused Western leaders of breaking their promise not to expand NATO, the Western military alliance, “ not an inch” for Eastern Europe and ignoring Russia’s main security “concerns” so far.

He warned on Tuesday that Ukraine’s accession to NATO could lead to a war between Russia a and the military alliance for the control of the Crimean peninsula.

01161856“Let’s imagine that the Ukraine, as a NATO country, starts such a military operation (to control Crimea). What will we do? Will we fight with NATO? Did anyone think about it? Apparently not,” said Putin, who ordered the annexation of the peninsula in 2014. He emphasized that Ukraine’s military doctrine includes the “retake of Crimea, including by military means.”

“It’s not something they say in public, it’s written in their documents,” he said.

He stated that Kiev is considering the possibility of launching a military operation against Crimea and the Donbass region as soon as NATO deploys modern offensive weapons on its territory, as it has already done in Poland and in Romania.

He recalled that the Kremlin considers the issue of Crimea, what Moscow calls its “sovereign territory”, as “closed”.

Putin claimed that NATO’s open door policy is not written down anywhere. “Where did you go? Where it is written? Nowhere,” he said.

The Russian leader also said that in Article of the North Atlantic Treaty establishing NATO is written that the alliance can accept other European countries with the approval of all its members.

“You can , but is not required to do so. Both the US and NATO can say, even to Ukraine, that we want to ensure its security, we value it. We respect your aspirations, but we cannot accept it, because we have other international obligations”, he commented.

“We have to find a way to guarantee the security and interests of all participants in this process, from Ukraine to European countries and Russia. But this is only possible through a serious and thoughtful analysis of the proposals included in our documents”, he argued.