KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky(pix) said Wednesday that Kyiv was focused “only on peace”, but insisted his country has the right to defend itself amid fears of a potential Russian invasion.
The Kremlin, which has deployed over 100,000 troops to Ukraine's borders, has complained about increased Western arms deliveries to its neighbour.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused the West of using Ukraine as a “tool” and said it was trying to draw the two countries into conflict.
“For us it is very important that these weapons are all for our defence,“ Zelensky said at a press conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
“Our only concern is peace and ending the occuption of territory through purely diplomatic means,“ he said.
Zelensky reiterated a call for the West to impose “preventative” sanctions on Moscow now to help ward off any potential attack.
The US and EU have pledged to impose “massive” costs on Russia if it invades Ukraine some eight years after seizing the Crimea peninsula in 2014.
Rutte insisted that “we believe that the only road to a solution is through de-escalation, diplomacy, and dialogue”.
“It is essential for dialogue to continue between Russia and the United States, between Russia and NATO.”
Moscow has issued Washington and NATO with a raft of security demands they say are non-starters -- including barring Ukraine from joining the alliance and pulling back military forces in eastern Europe.
Putin on Tuesday, in his first comments on the crisis in weeks, said the West had “ignored” the Kremlin’s main concerns -- but added that he hoped to find a solution.-AFP