Russia's Putin accuses the US of adding insult to injury

For weeks, Russian President Vladimir Putin had said little publicly about the crisis sparked by Russia's buildup of tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine's borders, which has raised fears of a possible invasion.

But speaking at a Tuesday news conference on Tuesday Putin said that his government was studying the responses from the United States and NATO to his security demands related to Ukraine but that it was clear the Kremlin's main complaints "had been ignored."

Putin added that Russia had not seen "adequate consideration of our three key demands regarding NATO expansion, the renunciation of the deployment of strike weapons systems near Russian borders, and the return of the NATO's military infrastructure in Europe to the state of 1997, when the Russia-NATO founding act was signed."

Putin also accused the US directly of attempting to "draw us into armed conflict" over the Ukraine crisis by using the country as a "tool" for NATO operations. He claimed that Washington's main goal is to force "allies in Europe to impose the very tough sanctions against us," or "draw Ukraine into NATO."

The US and NATO have said Putin's demands, which include a promise to never expand eastward to countries including Ukraine, violate NATO's open-door policy and are non-starters in negotiations.

Putin did not offer any solutions on Tuesday, but did say he was open to more talks. Diplomats from the US, Russia, Ukraine, NATO and the European Union have been engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent weeks.