Putin: Russia recognizes Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states

Photo: Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

In a televised speech to the Russian people, President Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russia now recognizes two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent.

The signing of the recognition decree was then broadcasted live.

Putin has also signed friendship and aid agreements with the leaders of the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, AFP reports.

The speech began with a long introduction by Putin in which he went through the history between Russia and Ukraine and, among other things, claimed that Ukraine as a whole was created by the Soviet Union.

Researcher calls Putin’s move dramatic escalation

Senior researcher Kristian Åtland at the Armed Forces Research Institute describes Putin’s recognition of the two breakaway republics as a dramatic escalation.

The moment of tension now, as Åtland sees it, is what happens next in the military area as a result of the president’s decision, the newspaper VG writes.

He wonders whether Russia will send military forces into the territories they now consider independent states.

“Will the Russian forces then stop at the line of contact, or will they push further west to take control of the entire area or an even larger part of Ukraine?” Åtland wonders.

He believes both scenarios are possible. Åtland emphasizes that the recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk has no legitimacy under international law.

Source : © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews

Do you have a news tip for Norway Today? We want to hear it. Get in touch at [email protected]

1 Comment on "Putin: Russia recognizes Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states"

  1. From the Washington Post article about this, an hour ago:

    In his lengthy television address on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin excoriated Ukraine’s leaders and called the country “a colony with puppets at its helm” where Russian speakers were oppressed.

    “Ukraine has never had its own authentic statehood. There has never been a sustainable statehood in Ukraine,” he said. He warned that Ukraine could develop its own nuclear weapons, calling this a “real threat,” adding that the West might help Kyiv develop them.
    ***
    The article also says that in the meeting of his Security Council, one member after another stood up to ask if not demand he treat East Ukraine as separate(, ethnic Russian) countries.
    As the late and badly missed chief of Norwegian intelligence Kjell Grandhagen said about 10 years ago – to everyone’s SHOCK – Putin is the best of the alternatives.
    Our 2014 Kiev coup set all this up, along with that last presidential debate moderator not asking the most obvious and vital foreign policy question, about Joe Biden’s long-stated intent to get Ukraine into NATO being intolerable to the Russians.
    The West had best start getting smarter about this.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.


*