Putin: Russia Will Recognize Breakaway Ukraine Regions

Move raises tensions even higher
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 21, 2022 12:58 PM CST
Putin: Russia Will Recognize Breakaway Ukraine Regions
A woman and her child from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the territory controlled by pro-Russia separatist governments in eastern Ukraine, waves from a train on their way to temporary shelter in Russia, Monday, Feb. 21, 2022.   (AP Photo)

Vladimir Putin has said he's not planning to invade Ukraine. The Russian president has, however, decided to recognize two breakaway regions in the east of the country as no longer being part of Ukraine, a move that raises fears of an attack even further, the Washington Post reports. Leaders of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions asked the Kremlin to recognize their independence Monday and Putin said a reply would come later in the day, the BBC reports. The Kremlin later confirmed that Putin will make Russia the first country to recognize the territories as independent. Ukrainian officials warned that the historic borders of the two regions extend beyond the areas controlled by pro-Russia rebels and that recognition from Moscow could lead to invasion and full-scale war, reports the Guardian.

Russia-backed rebels seized government buildings in the two regions and declared them "people’s republics" in 2014, the AP reports. Despite peace deals that left large areas under rebel control, skirmishes have continued and some 14,000 people have been killed in the area since 2014. Russia has distributed more than 700,000 Russian passports to the region's residents since 2019, so recognition from Moscow "would amount to something just short of annexation, since the 'republics' would be full of newly minted Russian citizens, the Economist notes.

Ukrainian authorities have warned for weeks that Russia could use Donetsk and Luhansk as a pretext for invasion by claiming Russian citizens were in danger, the New York Times reports. The Ukrainian military said late Sunday that pro-Russia separatists in Luhansk had opened fire with heavy artillery on their own capital city and planned to blame to attack on Ukraine. "If In the absence of any aggressive action from the Ukrainian defenders, the occupiers themselves are blowing up infrastructure in the occupied territories and firing chaotically on towns,” the military said in a statement. (More Ukraine stories.)

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