Russia Does Not Want To Seek Conflict, President Putin Calls The Beijing Winter Olympics Boycott A Mistake

President Vladimir Putin with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reviewing Russian military exercises. (Wikimedia Commons/Kremlin.ru/Press Service of the President of the Russian Federation)

JAKARTA - President Putin said Russia did not want to seek conflict with Western countries in Ukraine, but needed security guarantees and called the boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics a mistake in his year-end press statement on Thursday.

Ukraine is at the center of soaring East-West tensions after the United States and Kyiv accused Russia of weighing a new attack on its southern neighbor, a charge Moscow denies.

"This is not our choice, we don't want this," he told reporters when bombarded with questions about the risk of conflict with Ukraine during his marathon annual press conference, which lasted more than four hours.

Tensions over Ukraine have pushed Moscow's relations with the West to their lowest point since the collapse of the Soviet Union some 30 years ago. The United States, the European Union and the Group of Seven (G7) have all warned President Putin that he will face "grave consequences" including tough economic sanctions in the event of renewed Russian aggression.

President Putin further said Russia had received a generally positive initial response to a security proposal it submitted to the United States this month designed to defuse the crisis. He was hopeful about the prospects for negotiations, which he said would begin early next year in Geneva.

But in a separate reply, President Putin became even more heated when he recalled how NATO had "boldly deceived" Russia with successive waves of expansion since the Cold War, and said Moscow needed an immediate answer.

"You have to give us guarantees and soon, now," he insisted.

Russian military illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Mstyslav Chernov)

Russia rejects Ukrainian and US accusations of preparations for an invasion of Ukraine early next month by tens of thousands of Russian troops deployed within reach of the borders of a country that, like Russia, is a former Soviet republic.

It said it needed promises from the West, including a pledge not to carry out NATO military activities in Eastern Europe, as its security is threatened by Ukraine's growing relations with Western alliances, as well as the possibility of NATO missiles being deployed against it on Ukrainian soil.

"We immediately asked the question that there should be no further NATO movement to the east. The ball is in their hands, they have to answer us with something," he stressed.

President Putin accused Ukraine of violating its commitments under the 2015 deal, which was meant to stop fighting in its eastern Donbass area between Ukrainian and pro-Russian forces. Refused to speak to representatives of the two breakaway territories there.

President Putin made clear he does not see President Volodymr Zelenskiy as a negotiating partner, accusing him of falling under the influence of what he calls radical nationalist forces.

"How can I build a relationship with the current leadership, given what they do? Practically impossible," he said.

However, Ukraine's foreign ministry said Kyiv, on the other hand, had done a "great job" to bring about a new ceasefire agreement in the east on Wednesday. The Ukrainian military reported, however, that "armed formations of the Russian Federation" had violated the latest ceasefire three times in the course of Thursday, including with mortars and heavy grenade launchers.

On the same occasion, President Vladimir Putin called the diplomatic boycott of the upcoming 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics by the United States and its allies a mistake driven by a desire to contain China's developments.

Washington will not prevent China's emergence as a global competitor by dragging politics into sport, Putin said in answer to a question at his annual news conference.

Canada and Britain have said they will join the United States in a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, a move Beijing has denounced as a betrayal of Olympic principles.