Defying West, Russia's Putin recognises Ukraine rebel regions
MOSCOW, Russia — President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into two Moscow-backed rebel regions of Ukraine on Monday, defying Western threats of sanctions in a move that could set off a potentially catastrophic war with Kyiv.
Earlier, the Kremlin leader recognised the independence of two rebel-held areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine, paving the way for an operation to deploy part of the potential invasion force he has massed around the country.
In two official decrees, Putin instructed the defence ministry to assume "the function of peacekeeping" in the separatist-held regions.
The recognition of the breakaway republics, which form an enclave held by Russia-backed rebels since 2014, triggered international condemnation and a promise of targeted sanctions from the United States and the European Union — with a broader package of economic punishment to come in the event of invasion.
As news of the late-night recognition hit the streets of Kyiv, many were in disbelief but ready to defend their country if called on.
'We are on our own land'
"I am very shocked," Artem Ivaschenko, a 22-year-old cook originally from Donetsk, told AFP in the capital, calling the recognition the "scariest news" since he had fled the region eight years ago.
"I live here, I already lost a part of my homeland, it was taken away, so I will protect it."
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky convened a meeting of his national security council and had telephone calls with several world leaders in a bid to shore up support.
"We expect clear support steps and effective support steps from our partners," he declared in a late night televised address, vowing that Kyiv was not afraid of anyone.
"It is very important to see now who is our true friend and partner, and who will continue to scare the Russian Federation with words," he said.
"We are on our own land."
US President Joe Biden, France's Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned that Moscow's gambit "would not go unanswered".
The US announced sanctions, with the White House saying Biden will issue an executive order to "prohibit new investment, trade, and financing by US persons to, from, or in" the two rebel regions.
A French presidential official said the European Union was preparing a list of Russian entities and individuals to sanction in a "proportionate" response to the recognition.
Earlier, in an often angry 65-minute televised national address from his Kremlin office, Putin railed against his neighbour Ukraine as a failed state and "puppet" of the West, repeatedly suggesting it was essentially part of Russia.
He accused the authorities in Kyiv of persecuting Russian speakers and of preparing a "blitzkrieg" against the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in Ukraine's east.
"As for those who seized and hold power in Kyiv, we demand an immediate end to their military operations," Putin said.
"Otherwise, all responsibility for the possible continuation of bloodshed will be fully on the conscience of the regime in power in Ukraine."
Putin said it was necessary to "take a long overdue decision, to immediately recognise the independence" of the two regions.
He then signed partnership agreements with the rebels that declared the presence of Russian military forces "necessary to maintain peace... and ensure reliable security."
EU 'will react with sanctions'
The recognition effectively puts an end to an already shaky peace plan in the separatist conflict, which has rumbled on since 2014, after Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine, and has left more than 14,000 dead.
Russia will now deploy troops with the support of separatist officials and Ukraine will either have to accept the loss of a part of its territory or face an armed conflict against its vastly more powerful neighbour.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the move "a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and integrity of the Ukraine", with the UK cabinet's emergency COBR committee due to meet Tuesday and foreign minister Liz Truss promising "new sanctions on Russia."
EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel promised the bloc "will react with sanctions against those involved in this illegal act".
The United States and allies including France requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council later Monday.
Putin told his own security council earlier Monday that there were "no prospects" for the 2015 Minsk peace accords aimed at resolving the Ukraine conflict.
'Very big threat' to Russia
And he made clear the stakes were bigger than Ukraine, whose efforts to join NATO and the European Union have deeply angered Moscow.
"The use of Ukraine as an instrument of confrontation with our country poses a serious, very big threat to us," Putin said.
The dramatic meeting — with Putin sitting alone at a desk as his government, military and security chiefs took turns addressing him from a podium — came after weeks of tensions between Moscow and the West over Ukraine.
Western leaders warned that Russia was planning to invade its pro-Western neighbour after massing more than 150,000 troops on its borders, a claim Moscow repeatedly denied.
Tensions then spiked in recent days after an outbreak of heavy shellfire on Ukraine's eastern frontline with the separatists and a series of reported incidents on the border with Russia.
Monitors from the OSCE European security body on Monday reported more than 3,000 new ceasefire violations in east Ukraine the day before, a high for the year.
Ukrainian officials said two soldiers and a civilian died in more shelling of frontline villages Monday.
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday secured Turkey's crucial backing for Ukraine's NATO aspirations after winning a US pledge for cluster munitions that could inflict massive damage on Russian forces on the battlefield.
Washington's decision to deliver the controversial weapons — banned across a large part of the world but not in Russia or Ukraine — dramatically ups the stakes in the war, which entered its 500th day Saturday.
Zelensky has been travelling across Europe trying to secure bigger and better weapons for his outmatched army, which has launched a long-awaited counteroffensive that is progressing less swiftly than Ukraine's allies had hoped. — AFP
Washington's decision to supply Ukraine with ATACMS long-range missiles is "a grave mistake", Russian ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov says Wednesday.
"The White House's decision to send long-range missiles to Ukrainians is a grave mistake. The consequences of this step, which was deliberately hidden from the public, will be of the most serious nature," he says in a statement. — AFP
President Vladimir Putin says Sunday that Russian forces had made gains in their Ukraine offensive including in Avdiivka, a symbolic industrial hub.
"Our troops are improving their position in almost all of this area, which is quite vast," he says in an interview on Russian television, an extract of which was posted on social media on Sunday. "This concerns the areas of Kupiansk, Zaporizhia and Avdiivka." — AFP
The regional governor says debris from a drone destroyed over the Russian region of Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, fell on homes and killed three people, including a young child.
The air defense system "shot down an aircraft-type UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) approaching the city", says Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, adding that the falling debris destroyed several homes.
"Most importantly, three people were killed, one of them a small child," he writes on the Telegram messaging app, accompanied by pictures of a house reduced to a pile of rubble behind red and white police tape. — AFP
Ukraine's air force says on Tuesday that it had destroyed 27 of 36 Russian attack drones overnight in the south of the country.
Ukrainian forces downed 27 "Shahed-136/131" drones in the southern Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions, the air force said on the messaging platform Telegram.
In all, Moscow had launched 36 of the Iranian-made drones from the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014, it says. — AFP
The Kremlin claims on Friday Russian forces never targeted civilian infrastructure after Ukraine blamed Moscow for a missile attack that killed over 50 people in the eastern village of Groza.
"We repeat that the Russian military does not strike civilian targets. Strikes are carried out on military targets, on places where military personnel are concentrated," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says in his daily briefing. — AFP
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