TORZHOK /Tver Region/, March 28. /TASS/. The ongoing conflict with Ukraine could have been avoided should Russia’s security interests be taken into account after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"If after the collapse of the Soviet Union, as Russia suggested, we had built absolutely new relations in the sphere of security in Europe, nothing like what is going on today would have happened. They only had to take into account our security, we have been saying this year after year, as a matter of fact, decade after decade," he said at a meeting with military pilots in the Tver Region.

Instead, in his words, Russia’s interests have been totally ignored. "They have come right to our borders! We did not move close to the countries which were NATO members. It was them who moved closer to us. We did not seek to come close to the US border. It was them who are moving close to us and are right at our borders," he stressed.