Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attend a joint news conference in Moscow, Russia February 15, 2022. Sputnik/Sergey Guneev/Kremlin via REUTERS.
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia does not want a war in Europe, but described the situation in east Ukraine's breakaway regions as "genocide" and called for the conflict there to be resolved through the Minsk peace progress.
At a joint news conference after talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said Russia had decided to partially withdraw troops from near Ukraine and saw some room for further discussion with the West on Moscow's security demands.
He said, however, that there had not been a constructive response to Russia's demands.
He also said that Russia had been told that Ukraine would not join NATO in the near future, but that Moscow did not think that was a good enough assurance and wanted to resolve the matter in its entirety now.
Russia is campaigning for security guarantees from the West including a veto on Ukraine ever joining the U.S.-European military alliance. The Kremlin leader made the remark at a joint news conference after talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Moscow.
