Putin Accuses U.S. of ‘Pulling us Into Some Armed Conflict’ to Contain Russia’s ‘Development’

Russian President Vladimir Putin openly expressed his disappointment with how the Biden administration is handling its affairs in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Putin says the United States is trying to stoke conflict; adding Russia has no intention of invading Ukraine.

Putin complained Tuesday that Russia’s complaints have been “ignored” by the U.S and NATO, but was hopeful “dialogue will be continued” around its demands for a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.

Putin made the claim that the United States’ “most important task is to contain Russia’s development” and “Ukraine is just an instrument of achieving this goal.” A goal, he said, which “can be done in different ways, such as pulling us into some armed conflict and then forcing their allies in Europe to enact those harsh sanctions against us that are being discussed today in the United States.”

Despite claiming they do not plan to invade Ukraine, Russia currently has more than 100,000 troops near its borders. President Biden spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week, which a senior Ukrainian official said “did not go well.”

The official also said Zelensky urged President Biden to “calm down the messaging” so as not to create an economic impact of panic. However, a spokesman for Zelensky allegedly disputed the Ukrainian official’s assessment of the call.

A source “From the US side” told CNN “there is a recognition in the White House that Zelensky has ‘multiple audiences’ and is trying to balance them. ‘On the one hand, he wants assistance, but he has to assure his people he has the situation under control. That’s a tricky balance” said the source.

Putin said the concerns being ignored are that Russia had not seen “adequate consideration of our three key demands regarding NATO expansion, the renunciation of the deployment of strike weapons systems near Russian borders, and the return of the [NATO] bloc’s military infrastructure in Europe to the state of 1997, when the Russia-NATO founding act was signed.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov has told reporters that Russian officials are working to draft a formal response to U.S. security proposals to deescalate the Ukraine conflict.