<span style="color: #222222;">Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday accused the West of deliberately creating a scenario designed to lure it into war and ignoring Russia's security concerns over Ukraine. In his first direct public comments on the crisis for nearly six weeks, Putin showed no sign of backing down from security demands that Russia was demanding from the West.<br />''<br />''Speaking at a news conference in Kremlin, Mr Putin said that it's already clear now that fundamental Russian concerns were ignored. Putin described a potential future scenario in which Ukraine was admitted to NATO and then attempted to recapture the Crimea peninsula, the territory Russia seized in 2014.<br />''<br />''Russia has massed troops on the Ukrainian border and Western countries say they fear Putin may be planning to invade. Russia denies this but has said it could take unspecified military action unless its security demands are met. Western countries say any invasion would bring sanctions on Moscow.</span><br />