Russia’s President Vladimir Putin accused the U.S. of trying to draw Russia into a war with Ukraine, as the nation continues to build up military forces on the border with Ukraine.
What’s happening: Putin said Tuesday that the United States wanted Russia and Ukraine to have a confrontation so that the U.S. could put more sanctions on Russia, according to BBC News.
- He said the U.S. has been ignoring Russia’s concern about NATO — the Western military alliance — expanding too far into Europe.
What he said: “It seems to me that the United States is not so much concerned about the security of Ukraine ... but its main task is to contain Russia’s development. In this sense Ukraine itself is just a tool to reach this goal,” Putin said, according to BBC News.
- “Imagine that Ukraine is a NATO member and a military operation (to regain Crimea) begins,” the Russian leader said. “What — are we going to fight with Nato? Has anyone thought about this? It seems like they haven’t.”
State of play: Russia has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops on the Ukraine border.
- Russia recently sent medical equipment to treat casualties on the border, which many took as a sign of a coming war, as I reported for the Deseret News,
- Last week, the United States sent a letter to Russia that rejected the country’s continued demand to keep Ukraine out of NATO.
- Russia said it hadn’t responded fully to the U.S. yet.
Yes, but: New satellite images have shown that Russia has expanded its military presence in Belarus, Crimea and western Russia — all on the border of Ukraine, according to CNN.
- Russia and Belarus said the deployments are all related to a major training exercise.