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Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov (archive image)
Photo: Pavel Golovkin / AP
In view of the tensions in the Ukraine conflict, the Kremlin has accused the West of demonizing Russia internationally.
Moscow is not threatening anyone, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in an interview broadcast on Russian state television on Sunday.
President Vladimir Putin had also denied allegations that Russia was planning an attack on Ukraine.
"The heating up of the tense news situation and so on is once again being done with the aim of further demonizing Russia," said Peskov.
Russia should be portrayed as an »aggressor«.
The G7 states, leading western industrial nations, warned Russia urgently at the weekend of an attack on Ukraine and threatened with consequences.
Putin discussed the tensions on the Russian-Ukrainian border at a video summit with US President Joe Biden last Tuesday.
The Kremlin chief criticized the expansion of NATO troops to the east.
Troop movements in the border area
NATO reports about a concentration of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border sparked international concern.
Russia therefore gathered between 75,000 and 100,000 soldiers there.
It is feared that a Russian attack on the neighboring country could be imminent.
Russia repeatedly refused to plan an attack on Ukraine.
Russian media reported on Sunday that a US reconnaissance aircraft had been deployed in Ukraine for the first time.
Moscow has long seen signs that the government in Kiev could attempt a military offensive to regain the areas in eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
If this happens, it would be a violation of the Minsk peace plan of 2015. In this case, Russia could invade the separatist area to protect its citizens there, relying on its military doctrine.
Despite international criticism, Putin had Russian passports distributed to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians in Donbass.
