Putin to ponder options if West fails to meet demands regarding Ukraine

Russia President Vladimir Putin said he will ponder a slew of options if Western powers fail to meet his demands for security guarantees as NATO expands to Ukraine, The Associated Press reported. 

Russia submitted draft security documents earlier this month demanding that the alliance should deny membership to Ukraine and other Soviet countries and roll back its military deployments in Central and Eastern Europe. 

Putin has urged Western powers to move quickly with his demands, saying Russia will have to take “adequate military-technical measures” if the West continues to be “aggressive … on the threshold of our home.”

In an interview with a state media outlet, Putin said his country’s response “could be diverse” and “it will depend on what proposals our military experts submit to me,” according to the AP. 

“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,” Putin told the media outlet. 

Putin added that NATO’s expansion agreement with Ukraine and the deployment of alliance weapons would be the red line for his country, the AP reported. 

This comes as Russia and NATO have agreed to hold talks next month on security concerns, with Putin saying the talks will be held in Geneva, Switzerland. 

The U.S. and its allies have refused to offer Russia any type of guarantee in Putin’s demands, saying NATO’s principle that membership is open to any qualifying country, the AP noted. 

Western leaders have thrown their support for Ukraine in the ongoing conflict at the country’s eastern border, where Russian troops have been stationed since 2014.