British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has condemned Vladimir Putin’s decision to sign a decree recognising Ukraine’s eastern regions as independent states – a move that will pave the way for a long-feared Russian invasion of the country.
Recognising the rebel regions’ independence effectively shatters the Minsk peace agreements and opens the door for Russia to sign treaties with the ‘states’ and openly send troops and weapons there to defend them against Ukrainian ‘threats’.
The move fuels further tension with the West and narrows the diplomatic options available to avoid war, since it is an explicit rejection of a seven-year-old ceasefire mediated by France and Germany, still touted as the framework for any future negotiations on the wider crisis.
The Kremlin said that upon hearing that Putin will sign the order to recognise the independence of eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had ‘expressed disappointment’ over the decision in phone calls with the Russian President.
In response, the US has ordered sanctions which will prohibit new investment, trade and financing in the two separatist regions of Ukraine recognised by Putin, while the EU’s top officials said the bloc will also impose sanctions.
Mr Johnson said Putin’s decision to recognise the two separatist Ukrainian republics was in breach of international law and an ‘ill omen’ and ‘dark sign’ that things are moving in the wrong while UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the move would not go ‘unpunished’ as she announced new sanctions on Russia.
The EU’s top officials also said they will impose sanctions, while the U.S. has ordered sanctions which will prohibit new investment, trade and financing in the two separatist regions of Ukraine recognised by Putin.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg also condemned Putin, accusing Russia of ‘trying to stage a pretext to invade Ukraine yet again’.
Earlier, Putin vowed to decide ‘today’ whether to recognise Ukraine’s eastern regions as independent states. He made the remark at the end of an hours-long security council meeting that was broadcast on Russian TV during which the country’s top security officials were called up one by one and asked to lay out the case for war – seemingly aimed at persuading a skeptical public of the need to attack.
Having spent days staging what are widely believed to be false flag attacks on Ukrainian soil and blaming them on Kiev, ministers presented the ‘evidence’ to Putin today: Claiming Russians in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions are under threat of ‘genocide’, that no peace deal can save them, and that he must intervene to save lives.
But in evidence that the entire spectacle was being staged – with the West warning a decision to invade has already been made – eagle-eyed viewers noticed that defence minister Sergei Shoigu’s watch was five hours behind Moscow time, suggesting the hearing was pre-recorded.
All eyes will now turn to Ukraine’s border regions for evidence that Russian troops have crossed, after videos published earlier in the day showed tanks and armoured vehicles in ‘battle formations’ – some of them less than three miles from the frontier.
Dymtro Kuleba, Ukraine’s defence minister, said after the council meeting that ‘the entire world’ will watch what Russia does next and that ‘everyone realises the consequences’ if Putin vows to recognise the breakaway regions. ‘We all should calmly focus on de-escalation efforts, [there is] no other way,’ he tweeted.
It comes as two Ukrainian soldiers died on Monday and three were wounded in a shelling attack in Zaitseve, a village 18 miles north of the rebel stronghold Donetsk, Ukraine’s national police said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who had a phone call with Putin this evening, warned him that recognising the eastern regions would be a ‘one-sided’ breach of peace negotiations and that he has a ‘responsibility’ to de-escalate tensions by removing troops from the border.
Meanwhile Joe Biden called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and convened a meeting of his National Security team after Putin slammed the U.S. for ‘colonizing’ Ukraine and using it as a ‘puppet regime’ in televised remarks before signing the decree.
