Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin said the West was ignoring his calls for security guarantees in Europe and accused the United States of trying to goad Russia into a war to enable it to slap tougher sanctions on Moscow.

But Putin also said he hoped diplomatic initiatives would proceed. The comments were his first public pronouncements since the New Year amid persistent high tensions over Russia’s deployment of tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine’s border.

A day after acerbic exchanges between the United States and Russia at the U.N. Security Council, there was no letup in diplomacy aimed at avoiding what U.S. President Joe Biden says is a “distinct possibility” of a Russian military incursion in to Ukraine. Russia says it has no intention of making any such incursion and insists on securing guarantees – including an undertaking that NATO will expand no further and that Ukraine will never become a member.

British Prime Boris Johnson offered support to Ukraine in a visit to Kyiv and warned of a “military disaster” in the event of armed conflict. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Bilnken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held fresh talks by telephone but these appeared to have little effect on the situation on the ground.

Putin, addressing reporters after talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said the West had paid no heed to Russian calls for moves to provide Moscow with the security it needed – nearly eight years after it seized the Crimea Peninsula and fomented an armed uprising in eastern Ukraine.

“It seems to me that the United States is not so much concerned about the security of Ukraine… but its main task is to contain Russia’s development. In this sense Ukraine itself is just a tool to reach this goal,” Putin said.

“It can be done in different ways, such as pulling us into some armed conflict and then forcing their allies in Europe to enact those harsh sanctions against us that are being discussed today in the United States.”

Moscow alleges Ukraine preparing for offensive

Putin raised Moscow’s longstanding allegation that Ukraine was using attention and military help from the West to ready a military campaign to recapture Crimea or separatist-held parts of the Donbas region – where 14,000 people have died in fighting since 2014.

“Imagine that Ukraine is a NATO member and a military operation begins,” the Russian leader said. “What – are we going to fight with NATO? Has anyone thought about this? It seems like they haven’t.”

The United States and NATO have provided written responses to Moscow’s demands, which include a ban on offensive weaponry on Russia’s borders and a rollback in NATO deployments to levels of the late 1990s. These have not been disclosed, but Putin said it was clear “that the principal Russian concerns turned out to be ignored”.

Putin in December said Russia would take unspecified “military-technical” measures if the West did not meet its demands, but he issued no such threat on Tuesday.

He suggested diplomacy would continue with a possible visit to Moscow by French President Emmanuel Macron, who has advocated a European negotiating initiative separate from Washington. Macron and Putin have spoken twice in the past week.

Officials in Washington dismissed the Russian president’s comments as disingenuous, saying the presence of more than 100,000 troops on the border was proof that Moscow was “the aggressor”. Russia last week said some of its troops were returning to base, but the numbers involved were not clear.

“Holding a gun”

In Kyiv, Johnson said Russia’s actions amounted to Putin “holding a gun… to the head of Ukraine” and he called on the Kremlin to step back from a “military disaster”.

And he warned of a calamity if conflict went ahead.

“There are 200,000 men and women under arms in Ukraine,” he said. “They will put up a very, very fierce and bloody resistance and I think that parents, mothers, in Russia, should reflect on that fact. And I hope very much that President Putin steps back from the path of conflict and that we engage in dialogue.”

Johnson said any Russian offensive into Ukraine would be met with a new package of sanctions against Moscow.

Britain announced it was giving 88 million pounds ($120 million) to Ukraine to promote stable governance and energy independence from Russia. Both Britain and the United States have sent military equipment to Kyiv in the past week.

The Polish and Dutch prime ministers also held talks in Kyiv on Tuesday. President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the visits, saying:  “Support for Ukraine is the biggest since 2014.”

At a 2008 summit, NATO said that Ukraine and fellow ex-Soviet state Georgia would “one day” become members of the Alliance, though membership is viewed as distant, remote prospect.

Zelensky came to power in 2019 on a pledge to clinch a deal with Putin to end the conflict and restore lost territory to Kyiv’s control. But Putin refuses to discuss the conflict directly with Zelensky, clearly preferring to deal with Washington – and Zelensky has in the past year said Ukraine’s problems can only be solved by joining the Atlantic Alliance.

Zelensky has in the past week urged his own people to remain calm and Western leaders to tone down talk of an impending invasion, saying it was causing unnecessary tension and hurting his country’s economy. He has said his country is ready for any eventuality – officials in Kyiv deny Moscow’s suggestions that Ukraine is readying a military offensive, with Western help, to recapture separatist-held territory in the east of the country.