AKIPRESS.COM - “We are not going to and will not fight the Ukrainian people,” Putin underlined at the press conference on Tuesday.

Accusing the West of encouraging an “unconstitutional coup” in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin said Moscow reserves the right to use its military to protect Russians there but voiced hope it won’t need to do so, the National Post reported.

Putin declared that Western actions were driving Ukraine into anarchy and warned that any sanctions the West places on Russia for its actions there will backfire. Earlier, both the U.S. and the 28-nation European Union have raised the possibility of sanctions against Russia.

Putin added the massive military maneuvers Russia has been doing near Ukraine’s border had been planned and were unrelated to the situation in Ukraine. He also insisted that the Russian military deployment in Crimea has remained within the limits set by a bilateral agreement on a Russian military base there. He said Russia had no intention of annexing Crimea, but insisted its residents have the right to determine the region’s status in a referendum set for later this month.

Putin accused the West of using Yanukovych’s decision in November to ditch a pact with the EU in favor of closer ties with Russia to encourage the months of protests that drove him from power and put Ukraine’s future in turmoil. Yet he acknowledged that Yanukovych has no political future and said Russia gave him shelter only to save his life.

The same day, Russia’s state-controlled natural gas giant Gazprom said it will cancel a price discount on gas it sells to Ukraine. Russia had offered the discount in December 2013 as part of Russian help for Ukraine. Gazprom also said Ukraine owes it $1.5 billion.

Meanwhile, the U.S. announced a $1 billion aid package in energy subsidies to Ukraine, which is scrambling to get international loans to fend off looming bankruptcy. Its Finance Minister, who has said Ukraine needs $35 billion to get through this year and next, met with officials from the International Monetary Fund.

World markets seemed to recover from their fright over the situation in Ukraine, clawing back a large chunk of Monday’s stock losses, while oil, gold, wheat and the Japanese yen gave back some of their gains. “Confidence in equity markets has been restored as the standoff between Ukraine and Russia is no longer on red alert,” David Madden, market analyst at IG, said yesterday.