Putin Declares Formal Recognition Of Ukraine Separatist Regions As Sovereign States

byPlanet Today -
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Update(2:30pmET): It's official: Putin has confirmed the change of status recognition while warning Kiev and the West that Russia's military will act against any further aggression. He warned that Ukraine's government must now halt all military actions against Donbas or whatever happens next will be on them.

"Modern Ukraine was completely created by Russia," Putin stated at the outset of his speech.

  • PUTIN SAYS UKRAINE WAS NOT ABLE TO ACHIEVE STABLE STATEHOOD AND HAS THEREFORE HAD TO RELY ON FOREIGN COUNTRIES LIKE THE UNITED STATES
  • PUTIN: UKRAINE HAS BECOME 'A COLONY WITH A PUPPET GOVERNMENT'
  • PUTIN SAYS UKRAINE PLANS TO CREATE ITS OWN NUCLEAR WEAPONS
  • PUTIN SAYS WE WERE PROMISED NATO WOULD NOT EXPAND PUTIN SAYS THE OPPOSITE HAPPENED
  • PUTIN: I WILL SAY SOMETHING IVE NEVER SAID FOR THE FIRST TIME: I ASKED CLINTON HOW WOULD YOU FEEL ABOUT RUSSIA JOINING NATO?
  • PUTIN SAYS WE SAW FIVE WAVES OF NATO EXPANSION RECENTLY
  • U.S. DOES NOT NEED SUCH A BIG COUNTRY AS RUSSIA IN NATO
  • 'WHY MAKE AN ENEMY OF US
  • PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA HAS EVERY RIGHT TO PROTECT ITS SECURITY, THAT'S WHAT WE'LL DO
  • PUTIN: UKRAINE DOESNT WANT A PEACEFUL RESOLUTION
  • PUTIN: RUSSIA WILL TAKE STEPS TO ENSURE ITS SECURITY
  • PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA WILL RECOGNISE INDEPENDENCE OF TWO BREAKAWAY REGIONS IN EASTERN UKRAINE

Update(1:27pmET): The leaders of France and Germany were reportedly just informed by Putin that he intends to pull the trigger on issuing formal recognition of the two breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine.

* * *

Update(12:38pmET): Despite the evening growing late Moscow time, it appears Russia is readying a major decision on the looming question of the independence of the two breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine. The AFP is reporting that Putin will make a televised address "soon" according to state media sources. Likely it is to be carried via Russian state channels, with reports suggesting it will happen starting at 9pm local time (or 1pm ET).

  • PUTIN TOLD SCHOLZ AND MACRON HE WILL SIGN A DECREE ON EASTERN UKRAINE REGIONS SHORTLY, WESTERN LEADERS WERE DISMAYED - RIA CITES KREMLIN
  • PUTIN PLANS TO SIGN UKRAINE SEPARATIST RECOGNITION: KREMLIN

As fighting in Donbas has continued into evening, Ukrainian government officials reported that a civilian has been killed by shelling during an attack on government-held Novoluganske, which lies a couple dozen miles north of Donetsk. 

Journalists are now looking for ominous signs of what might be about to come...

* * *

Update(10:40amET): Putin said during his addressing the Russian Security Council that "I will make a decision today" over whether or not to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk separatist republics at a moment of heavy fighting with Ukrainian national forces. 

There were indications from the meeting that Russia would give the West a three day ultimatum and window before recognizing the separatist regions in eastern Ukraine - perhaps as a chance for last minute diplomacy to proceed; however, with Putin's words it appears we'll learn the fate of the region sooner than later.

However, Russia's top diplomat Sergey Lavrov appears to be a voice of caution while other officials within the security council were in favor of independence. 

Top officials in the meeting were asked whether they support the pro-Russian separatist republics...

It reportedly led to some uncomfortable moments as the world now awaits Putin's decision:

If Putin does pull the trigger on recognition, it could virtually assure some level of a war or serious conflict, given that the breakaway republics would come under more intense attack from Ukraine's army, leading to Russian intervention in defense of the "newly recognized" regions - if we soon get to that point.

Ukraine is now urging an immediate UN Security Council meeting as tensions soar and war looks to be on the horizon...

* * *

Update(9:48amET): Separatist leader Denis Pushilin has issued a formal request to President Vladimir Putin calling on Russia to recognize the Donetsk People's Republic. The Luhansk republic has simultaneously published the same request, at a moment Putin is holding an urgent session of the Russian Security Council. This followed quickly on the heels of what Russia's southern command said was a serious attempt of Ukrainian armored vehicles to breach its border, that resulted in five Ukrainians killed.

However, the Ukrainian government and army rejected the entirety of the allegations as "fake news" - rejecting that its forces are even in the area where it's said to have occurred (though without addressing the possibility that they could have been irregular forces). But Russia's FSB Director Bortnikov Russian responding by saying the Russian military "destroyed Ukrainian forces that tried to infiltrate the border and took one Ukrainian POW" - thus doubling down on the claims.

That a captured Ukrainian soldier could be in Russian custody would obviously provide verification, if true. But it would also be seen by the West as a massive escalation possibly leading to more direct NATO involvement.

Currently Putin is speaking at a live televised meeting of the council, where he started by staying Ukraine is planning not to uphold its end of the Minsk accords. 

The question is also reportedly on the table of whether or in what way the Donbas region could achieve independence, even with at one point in the security council session an official raising the possibility of direct annexation. Putin said "we need to consider if we recognize the independence of the two breakaway Ukrainian regions," according to a rush translation of his words. 

  • PUTIN: WE MUST DECIDE ON RECOGNIZING SEPARATISTS
  • PUTIN: WEST IS MAKING `THREATS, BLACKMAIL'
  • RUSSIA'S MEDVEDEV: WE KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN WE RECOGNIZE DONBASS INDEPENDENCE, THE PRESSURE WILL BE UNPRECEDENTED, BUT WE KNOW HOW TO FACE IT

Putin further repeated while addressing the forum that "if Russia faces the danger of Ukraine joining NATO, the threat for our country will increase substantially." He was perhaps addressing a hugely provocative statement made by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to "60 Minutes" which aired Sunday.

Kuleba on a major American television show reaffirmed Ukraine's desire to enter NATO, which without doubt inflamed tensions further from Moscow's point of view...

In response to the rapidly escalating crisis, the ruble has tumbled as much as 3%, extending its worst 3-day slump since March 2020...

... while the Moscow Exchange tumbled as much as 10%, its biggest drop since 2008...

... amid a bloodbath of most Russian stocks.

 

* * *

Earlier:

In what provides Russia an 'opportunity' to pull the trigger on overt intervention in eastern Ukraine (assuming it's actually desiring to do so), rebel leaders in the breakaway Donetsk region on Monday urged Moscow's urgent military help amid worsening shelling from Ukrainian national forces, and as fighting escalates along the line of contact.

This as Interfax in a breaking report cites Russian defense officials who say five "saboteurs" were killed by border guards as they attempted to enter Russia's territory. Though details are as yet unconfirmed at this early point, Russia's military says Ukrainian army vehicles attempted to breach sovereign Russian territory. Ukraine is disputing the entire narrative, however, calling it fake news and that its forces are not in the Rostov area. 

RUSSIA SAYS KILLED FIVE PEOPLE WHO TRIED TO VIOLATE BORDER: IFX

And Bloomberg details of the breaking report: 

Russian forces killed five “saboteurs” and destroyed 2 armored personnel carriers of the Ukrainian forces who tried to violate Russian border, Russian army’s Southern Military District says, according to Interfax report

The Russian MoD statement said the alleged "attack occurred in the Mityakinskaya area at 6 am this morning. Infantry fighting vehicles were destroyed by anti-tank missiles."

The separatists are now formally asking Moscow for military and financial assistance against the "Ukrainian attacks"; however, Ukraine's army is currently denying that it's conducting offensive operations in the Donbas, according to RT and regional correspondents.

Further the Kremlin is citing what it says is a major escalation, after reports that a Ukrainian shell hit and destroyed a Russian border checkpoint in the Rostov region. The Russian side now says Ukrainian munitions are landing on its sovereign soil, which some say could be used as a casus belli if Putin so chooses. 

Archived image of Ukrainian troops in Donbas, via Wiki Commons

According to Russian state sources, Donbas officials and separatist commanders are intensifying their plea for Russian help, which if initiated could crucially in turn trigger heightened NATO intervention in the conflict: 

Speaking to the Solovyov Live YouTube channel on Monday, Eduard Basurin, the spokesman for the Donetsk People’s Militia said that Moscow should provide moral support “first of all,” but that “I would not refuse any - military assistance is also needed, in different forms.”

The official also claimed that there is a war taking place in Donbass, adding, “the situation isn’t just difficult, it is genuinely critical.”

Both breakaway republics began evacuating citizens to Russian territory, announced on Feb.18, citing fears of reprisal attacks by Ukrainian forces, with at this point a believed tens of thousands of civilians having been transferred, mostly via large passenger buses. 

One Russian media report cites that about "61,000 residents of the LPR and DPR have crossed the border into Russia as part of evacuation amid escalation in eastern Ukraine."

If true this would suggest a major logistical operation still in progress amid the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the war-torn Donbas, and still with unprecedented numbers of Russian troops mustered near the border in Russia's southern regions. 

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