Vladimir Putin: US is ignoring Russia's concerns

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has accused the US of trying to draw his country into a war in Ukraine.

In his first significant comments on the crisis in several weeks, he said America's goal was to use a confrontation as a pretext to impose more sanctions on Russia.

Mr Putin said the US had ignored Moscow's concerns in its response to Russian demands for legally binding security guarantees, including a block on Nato's further expansion to the east.

He suggested that if Ukraine were granted its wish to join Nato, it could drag the other members into a war with Russia.

"Imagine that Ukraine is a Nato member and a military operation [to regain Crimea] begins," the Russian leader said. "What - are we going to fight with Nato? Has anyone thought about this? It seems like they haven't."

Russia has in recent weeks moved about 100,000 troops - equipped with everything from tanks and artillery to ammunition and air power - to Ukraine's border.

But Russia denies Western accusations that it is planning an invasion, nearly eight years after it annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula and backed a bloody rebellion in the eastern Donbas region.