Russian President Vladimir Putin today deployed troops to two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine after recognising them as independent. This strategic decision of Putin has shocked the Western world who were expecting Russian invasion in Ukraine.
Russian tanks and other military hardware were moving through the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk after Putin issued a decree recognising the breakaway regions and told Russia’s defence ministry to send in forces to protect regions from aggression and to maintain peace there.
The moves drew U.S. and European condemnation and vows of new sanctions although it was unclear whether it was Putin’s first major step toward a full-scale offensive in Ukraine that Western governments have warned about for weeks.
A senior U.S. official said the deployment to breakaway enclaves already controlled by separatists loyal to Moscow did not yet constitute a “further invasion” that would trigger the harshest sanctions, but that a wider military campaign could come at any time.
There was no word on the size of the force Putin was dispatching, but the decree said Russia now had the right to build military bases in the breakaway regions.
In a lengthy televised address packed with grievances against the West, a visibly angry Putin described Ukraine as an integral part of Russia’s history and said eastern Ukraine was ancient Russian lands.
Russian state television showed Putin, joined by Russia-backed separatist leaders, signing a decree recognising the independence of the two Ukrainian breakaway regions – the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic – along with agreements on cooperation and friendship.
Defying Western warnings against such a move, Vladimir Putin had announced his decision in phone calls to the leaders of Germany and France earlier, the Kremlin said.
Moscow’s action may well torpedo a last-minute bid for a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine, which the senior U.S. official said was now in doubt.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who received a solidarity call from Biden, accused Russia of wrecking peace talks and ruled out territorial concessions in an address to the nation early on Tuesday.
Biden, who also spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron and Germany Chancellor Olaf Scholz, quickly signed an executive order to halt all U.S. business activity in the breakaway regions and ban import of all goods from those areas.
White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said the measures were separate from sanctions the United States and its allies have been readying if Russia invades Ukraine.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the executive order “is designed to prevent Russia from profiting off of this blatant violation of international law.”
