MOSCOW, 24 December 2021, (TON): Russia wants to avoid conflict with Ukraine and the West, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, but needs an immediate response from the United States and its allies to its demands for security guarantees.

Ukraine is at the centre of soaring East-West tensions after the United States and Kyiv accused Russia of weighing a new attack on its southern neighbour, an allegation Moscow denies.

Putin was plied with questions about the risk of conflict with Ukraine during his marathon annual news conference, which lasted over four hours.

He told reporters "this is not our (preferred) choice, we do not want this.”

The United States, European Union and Group of Seven have all warned Putin he will face "massive consequences" including tough economic sanctions in the event of any new Russian aggression.

Putin said “Russia had received a generally positive initial response to security proposals it handed to the United States this month designed to defuse the crisis and that he was hopeful about the prospect for negotiations, which he said would start early next year in Geneva.”

But in a separate reply, Putin grew more heated when recalling how NATO had "brazenly tricked" Russia with successive waves of expansion since the Cold War, and said Moscow needed an answer urgently.