MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused the West of ignoring Moscow’s security concerns and of using Ukraine as a tool to contain Russia, though he said he hoped a solution could be found to end spiralling tensions.

Putin said the Kremlin was studying a response from Washington and NATO to Moscow’s security demands, but that it had been far from adequate. They were his first public remarks for weeks on the crisis which has been fuelled by fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“It is already clear that fundamental Russian concerns ended up being ignored,” Putin told reporters after talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Moscow.