President Vladimir Putin on Sunday said Russia is ready to launch a military response if the West fails to meet its security demands regarding the ongoing crisis along its border with Ukraine.
During an interview with Russian state TV, Putin declared that Moscow is prepared to launch a diverse range of “military-technical measures” if the West continues its “aggressive” policy against Russia, adding that the response “will depend on what proposals our military experts submit to me.” Concerning the detailed security proposals Russia has made to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United States (US), Putin said, “We didn’t do it just to see it blocked...but for the purpose of reaching a negotiated diplomatic result that would be fixed in legally binding documents.”
Earlier this month, Russia published a list of security demands made to the US and NATO with regards to Western military activity and NATO’s eastward expansion, in an effort to de-escalate tensions with Ukraine. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a broadcast on Sunday that NATO’s expansion towards Ukraine or other former Soviet nations is “a matter of life or death for us.” Furthermore, during his annual end of the year press conference last week, Putin urged NATO and the US to provide Moscow with “immediate” guarantees and attacked the West for repeatedly infringing on Russia’s security.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed last week that Russia is set to meet the US and NATO in Geneva early next year to discuss the security proposals. In the same week, Putin also talked to French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz regarding the possibility of holding a Normandy Format summit to resolve the conflict with Ukraine.
Putin’s latest remarks come after the Kremlin on Saturday announced that 10,000 Russian soldiers will be returning to their permanent bases after finishing a month-long military drill near the Ukraine border. According to a statement by the Russian Ministry of Defence, the troops from the Southern Military District were departing from southern regions of Rostov, Kuban, and Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
In recent months, the US and its European allies have raised alarms over Russia amassing troops along its shared border with Ukraine in preparation for an invasion. US intelligence reports have suggested that the presence of 175,000 Russian troops is reminiscent of the 2014 invasion of Crimea. On the contrary, Russia has accused Ukraine of mobilising half of its army at the border and violating terms of the Minsk Protocol.