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| Alexey Nikolsky - Sputnik / AFP / Getty Images |
The Kremlin announced on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would recognize two territories in eastern Ukraine that are under the control of Russian-backed separatists as independent, The New York Times reported.
He did so during an address to the nation.
Putin concluded his history making speech, by recognising the independence of Eastern Ukraine regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Publicly signing the decree. A truly terrifying moment for the people of Ukraine. And for regional and global security.
— Dr. Jennifer Cassidy (@OxfordDiplomat) February 21, 2022
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The separatists claim Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions as their own but only control about a third of them, the Times reported.
Putin told President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany of his decision in phone calls on Monday, the Times reported.
“The president of Russia said that he intended to sign the relevant decree in the near future,” the Kremlin said, according to the report. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP |
U.S., allies prepare sanctions as Europe teeters on edge of war
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday recognized two breakaway enclaves in neighboring Ukraine as independent states and authorized Russian troops to cross into Ukrainian territory as a “peacekeeping” force, defying warnings from the U.S. and its allies.
The move brought swift condemnation and sanctions from the Biden administration, leading European powers and the government in Kyiv while setting fears soaring that the Kremlin had set into motion an invasion that could lead to a conflict greater than anything the continent has experienced since World War II.
The Kremlin announced the order to deploy Russian troops just hours after Mr. Putin delivered an angry, rambling speech in Moscow in which he accused the Ukrainian government of being a “puppet” of the United States and formally recognized the “independence” of two stretches of eastern Ukraine known as the Donbas that have been in pro-Russian separatists’ hands since a civil war with Kyiv broke out in 2014.
Mr. Putin made the audacious move, reminiscent of the political theater before Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine‘s Crimean Peninsula, after weeks of U.S. warnings that he would try to create a pretext for sending in the Russian military to “protect” the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. While denying any plans to invade, Mr. Putin had built up at least 150,000 Russian troops and a flotilla of ships in recent months and surrounded its smaller neighbor on three sides. --->READ MORE HERE
Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to inflict a “bloodbath” if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky opposes a new Kremlin maneuver to break away vast swathes of Ukrainian territory from the central government.
“And those who seized the power and keep the power in Kyiv, we demand [they] stop hostilities immediately,” Putin said Monday through a state media interpreter. “Otherwise, all the responsibility for the possible continuation of the bloodbath will be on the consciousness [conscience] of the regime that is ruling in Kyiv.”
Moments before that threat, Putin announced that he would back “the independence and sovereignty of Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic,” the names used by the Ukraine-based Russian proxies that have functioned as the public face of the conflict in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine since 2014. Those entities have allowed Putin to portray the fighting as an internal civil war between separatists and the Ukrainian central government, but Western officials and even a Russian judge have stated that Russian military forces are occupying those areas.
Putin delivered the speech one day after the scheduled end of military drills that entailed the mass mobilization of Russian forces around Ukrainian borders at positions that enable them not only to move into the Donbas region but even to threaten the Ukrainian capital. Putin portrayed the decision as "long overdue" after years of trying to pressure Ukrainian officials to agree to a political deal that would give his proxies "special status" under a revised Ukrainian constitution. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to related stories:
Russian troops moving into Donbas not a 'new step,' administration official says
Putin orders troops to keep ‘peace’ after recognizing 2 breakaway Ukrainian regions
Putin orders 'peacekeeping operation' in two breakaway eastern Ukrainian regions
Russia Orders Troops to Ukrainian Separatist Regions following Putin Recognition
How Far Do Putin’s Recognition Orders Extend?
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