Vladimir Putin said the US and Russia would meet in January in Geneva for talks over Ukraine, which he said were essential to protect Moscow from what he claimed were existential threats from Nato.
Speaking at his annual press conference in Moscow on Thursday, the Russian president welcomed a “positive reaction” from the US to two sets of draft proposals on European security that Moscow published last week, which he said the sides would discuss at bilateral talks early next year.
“Our American partners are telling us they’re ready to start this discussion, these negotiations,” Putin said. “Representatives from both sides have been appointed. I hope that this is the way the situation will play out.”
He added: “The ball’s in their court. They need to tell us something in response. ”
The proposals include a request that Nato pledge to stop admitting any members from the former Soviet Union — chiefly Ukraine — and that it curb military deployments. The US has said several of these proposals are non-negotiable but that it is open to discussing other demands made by the Kremlin as it seeks ways to deter Russia from military action.
Putin’s comments marked openness to resorting to diplomacy first, in a slight softening from earlier this week when he threatened to use Russia’s military if his security demands were not met. But the Russian leader also made it clear he viewed Ukraine as an existential, unfinished issue dating back to the USSR’s collapse in 1991, claiming that parts of its neighbor were Moscow’s “historical territories’ .
The US has warned allies in Europe that Moscow has been massing about 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s border with an intention to launch a possible invasion, which the Kremlin first denied.
But on Thursday, Putin refused to rule out another military solution to the tensions with Ukraine. Kyiv, he claimed, was planning an offensive to reclaim Donbas, the eastern border region now controlled by Russia-backed separatists, which broke away in 2014 following Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.
Oleg Nikolenko, Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson, denied any intention of starting a military offensive on Donbas, where the slow-burning conflict has killed more than 14,000 people.