The Kremlin said Monday evening that Vladimir Putin would recognize the independence of the pro-Russian separatist territories in eastern Ukraine.
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Vladimir Putin has decided to recognize the independence of the pro-Russian separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, as claimed by the Kremlin monday february 21. “A decree to this effect will be signed shortly”, explained the Russian presidency. According to the same source, Vladimir Putin informed of this decision his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, mediators in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and these, according to the Kremlin, “expressed their disappointment”.
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Earlier in the day, the leaders of the two territories in the hands of pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, those of Donetsk and Luhansk, had called on him to recognize their independence and establish a “defense cooperation”. Such recognition would mark the end of the peace process and Russia would officially take under its wing the regions concerned, of which it is already, in fact, the military and financial sponsor.
These maneuvers come at a time when the warning signs of a war in Ukraine, on the borders of which more than 150,000 Russian soldiers, according to Washington, have been waiting in arms for several weeks, are multiplying.
At a time when Kiev and the West have for days accused Russia of seeking a pretext for intervention, Moscow on Monday accused “saboteurs” Ukrainians for entering Russia and claiming that a Russian border post had been destroyed by Ukrainian artillery, which Ukraine has categorically denied.
Russia says it killed five of these agents and took a Ukrainian soldier prisoner. Faced with the threat of a Russian invasion, Ukraine called for a meeting on Monday “immediate” of the UN Security Council.