Putin welcomes 'positive' US stance in Ukraine row

MOSCOW－Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Washington's willingness to discuss Russia's security proposals to curb NATO's eastward expansion was "positive", as fears mount in the West over a major military escalation in Ukraine.

The Kremlin said the West and NATO are encroaching dangerously close to Russia's borders.

Moscow presented the West with sweeping security demands earlier this month, saying NATO must not admit new members and seeks to bar the United States from establishing new bases in former Soviet republics.

Washington responded that it is willing to discuss the security proposals－within weeks according to a US official－and Putin said on Thursday that Washington is ready for talks in Geneva at the start of next year.

"The start of negotiations announced (for) January will allow us to move forward," said Putin during his annual end-of-year news conference, adding that representatives from both sides have been appointed.

"I hope that this is the first positive reaction."

A senior US official said Washington is "ready to engage in diplomacy as soon as early January", both bilaterally and through "multiple channels".

Putin's conciliatory tone on Thursday came after tensions peaked this week when he vowed that Russia would take "appropriate retaliatory" military steps in response to what he called the West's "aggressive stance", reported Agence France-Presse.

He also announced a new arsenal of hypersonic missiles that he has previously described as "invincible" were nearing combat readiness.

Tensions have been building since mid-November when Washington sounded the alarm over a massive Russian troop buildup on Ukraine's border and claimed that Moscow is planning an invasion, a claim which Russia denied.

The West has long accused the Kremlin of providing direct military support to pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine who seized two regions shortly after Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014.

Russia denies the claims and Putin has suggested that the conflict, which has claimed over 13,000 lives, is genocidal.

In a phone call with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, the European Union's top diplomat Josep Borrell said Moscow should "de-escalate" the situation and respect Ukraine's sovereignty.

During the marathon news conference lasting nearly four hours, Putin also denounced a decision by several Western nations led by the US not to send diplomatic representatives to the Beijing Olympics as "unacceptable", saying sport should not be tainted by politics.

Agencies - Xinhua