ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Skip to main content

Putin discusses Ukraine tensions with visiting Hungarian PM

Share
MOSCOW -

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed tensions over Ukraine with his visiting Hungarian counterpart on Tuesday, a day after Russian and U.S. diplomats exchanged sharp accusations at the UN Security Council.

The Kremlin is seeking legally binding guarantees from the U.S. and NATO that Ukraine will never join the bloc, deployment of NATO weapons near Russian borders will be halted and the alliance's forces will be rolled back from Eastern Europe.

The demands, rejected by NATO and the U.S. as nonstarters, come amid fears that Russia might invade Ukraine, fuelled by the buildup of an estimated 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine's borders. Talks between Russia and the West have so far failed to yield any progress.

Putin hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban in the Kremlin on Tuesday, saying he would brief him about the talks with the West on Russia's security demands. Orban, in turn, stressed that no European leader wants a war in the region.

Washington has provided Moscow with a written response to Russia's demands, and on Monday three Biden administration officials said the Russian government sent a written response to the U.S. proposals. A State Department official declined to offer details, saying it "would be unproductive to negotiate in public" and that Washington would leave it up to Russia to discuss the counterproposal.

But Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko on Tuesday told Russia's state RIA Novosti news agency that this was "not true."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that there had been "confusion" and that Russia's response to the U.S. proposals is still in the works and will be formulated by Putin.

RIA Novosty cited an unnamed senior diplomat in the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sent letters to his Western colleagues, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, about "the principle of indivisibility of security" contained in an international document signed by all members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Russia has argued that NATO's expansion eastward has hurt Russia's security, violating the principle that the security of one nation should not be strengthened at the expense of others.

On Monday, Russia accused the West of "whipping up tensions" over Ukraine and said the U.S. had brought "pure Nazis" to power in Kyiv as the UN Security Council held a stormy debate on Moscow's troop buildup near its southern neighbor.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield shot back that Russia's growing military force along Ukraine's borders was "the largest mobilization" in Europe in decades, adding that there has been a spike in cyberattacks and Russian disinformation.

The harsh exchanges in the Security Council came after Moscow lost an attempt to block the meeting and reflected the gulf between the two nuclear powers. It was the first open session where all protagonists in the Ukraine crisis spoke publicly, even though the UN's most powerful body took no action.

Meanwhile, high-level diplomacy continued Tuesday.

Lavrov and Blinken were expected to have a phone call, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

In the meantime, Zelenskyy signed a decree on Tuesday expanding the country's army by 100,000 troops, bringing the total number to 350,000 in the next three years, and raising army wages.

Zelenskyy, who in recent days sought to calm the nation in the wake of fears of an imminent invasion, said Tuesday that he signed "this decree not because of a war."

"This decree is so that there is peace soon and further down the line," the president said.

The decree ended conscription starting from Jan. 1, 2024, and outlined plans to hire 100,000 troops over the next three years.

Zelenskyy also said Ukraine would forge a new trilateral political alliance with Britain and Poland, hailing it as strong international support for Ukraine.

------

Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee in Washington, and Yuras Karmanau in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report

CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Police have arrested an 18-year-old woman who allegedly stole a Porsche and then ran over its owner in an incident that was captured on video.

Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.

Advocates have identified the woman who died this week after being shot by police in Surrey, B.C., as a South American refugee who was raising a young daughter.

Three men were injured after trying to subdue a man armed with a knife during afternoon prayers at a Montreal-area mosque Friday afternoon.

A 15-year-old boy who was the subject of an emergency alert in New Brunswick has been arrested.

The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.

Provincial police investigating the death of a cat that was allegedly set on fire in Orillia earlier this week released surveillance video of a person of interest in the case.

Local Spotlight

Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.

An anonymous business owner paid off the mortgage for a New Brunswick not-for-profit.

They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.