Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke during a Security Council meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Feb. 21, 2022, where it was decided that Russia would recognize the Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine as independent states, a pronouncement that adds to Western fears that Putin is imminently set to invade Ukraine.
The Kremlin said Putin informed the leaders of France and Germany Monday of his decision.
About 14,000 people have been killed in the flashpoint Donbas territory since 2014 in fighting between pro-Moscow separatists and Kyiv’s forces, trench warfare battles that started after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
The separatists want Russia to sign friendship treaties and give them military aid to protect them from what they contend is an ongoing Ukrainian military offensive.
The Russian parliament last week called on Putin to formally recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, both of which declared independence from Ukraine in 2014, although no other country currently recognizes the republics as sovereign states.
Putin said there was “no prospect” for peace to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine, but Moscow has contended it has no plans to invade Ukraine, even as some 150,000 Russian troops are massed at Ukraine’s border.
U.S. President Joe Biden agreed “in principle” late Sunday to meet with Putin to discuss the crisis face to face, as long as Russia does not first invade Ukraine.
Source: Voice of America
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