World Putin will not accept ultimatums over Ukraine
Russia said yesterday that President Vladimir Putin would not tolerate any ultimatums over Ukraine after a report said Germany had given him until tomorrow to agree a peace plan or face new sanctions.
"We've already said everything about the tone of the negotiations," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Russian radio.
Putin warned on Sunday that he would go to the summit only if the leaders manage to agree on a "number of points" by tomorrow. He did not elaborate.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that Merkel had given Putin until Wednesday to agree to a Franco-German peace plan for Ukraine, failing which Moscow faced further sanctions.
Merkel -- who has publicly spoken out against supplying arms to Ukraine -- also told Putin privately that she would not stand in the way of Washington sending arms to Ukraine, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited unidentified Western officials.
Western countries had broken pledges not to expand Nato and forced countries to choose between them and Russia, Putin told an Egyptian newspaper.
At the start of a visit to Egypt, President Putin renewed his attack on Western countries for their "hollow" promises not to expand Nato to include former Soviet countries, and therefore ignoring Russian interests.
There had been attempts, Putin told Egypt's al-Ahram newspaper, "to tear states which had been parts of the former USSR [Soviet Union] off Russia and to prompt them to make an artificial choice 'between Russia and Europe'.
"We repeatedly warned the US and its Western allies about harmful consequences of their interference in Ukrainian domestic affairs but they did not listen to our opinion," the Russian leader said.
He went on to accuse them of supporting a "coup d'etat in Kiev" - a reference to the ousting of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych last year.
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