President Putin gave the order to the Ministry of Defense to mobilize troops with the aim of “keeping peace” in the regions located to the east of Ukraine. “In connection with the appeal of the leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic, [ordeno] the Russian Ministry of Defense to guarantee until the signing of the agreement [de amistad, cooperación y asistencia mutua] that the Russian Armed Forces carry out peacekeeping duties on the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic“, reads the decree released by the RT agency.
No timetable for the deployment or its magnitude was announced in the documents, each one page long and published on the site of the Russian database of legal texts.
Russia has been deploying for two weeks tens of thousands of soldiers on Ukraine’s borders, which, according to Western countries, are ready to invade the neighbor.
Putin’s decision comes after this afternoon he informed the country that he will recognize the independence of the separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, an action that he justified in the protection of four million people at risk of genocide, referring to the Russian-speakers.
“Russia has every right to protect its security and that is what we will do,” he stressed after assuring that Ukraine’s incorporation into NATO is only a matter of time and complaining that Western countries ignored all Moscow’s concerns. about your safety.
The recognition opens the door for Putin to legitimize the mobilization of Russian troops to the territories of Donetsk and Luganskunder the argument of defending Russian-speaking citizens.
Earlier, the leaders of the two pro-Russian separatist territories in eastern Ukraine, Denis Pushilin of the DNR (People’s Republic of Donetsk) and Leonid Pasechnik, of the LNR (People’s Republic of Lugansk) had asked the Russian president to recognize their independence and activate “defense cooperation”.
“I have heard your views, the decision will be made today,” Putin had told members of his Security Council at the end of a meeting broadcast on Russian television.
Unlike Crimea, Russia avoided annexation of the region or its recognition all this time, and advocated that Ukraine grant it a special status that for the Ukrainian government would have compromised its sovereignty, the newspaper El País recalled.
Kiev has always insisted that the 2015 Minsk peace accords, signed to bring about a ceasefire, include the recovery of its borders.
Once again, Putin accused the West of “using Ukraine as an instrument of confrontation with our country”, which “poses a serious threat, very important to us”.
Russia’s priority is not “confrontation but security”added the president during an extraordinary meeting of the Russian Security Council.
Putin’s statements come after Russia announced on Monday that its security forces had eliminated two groups of Ukrainian saboteurs that they had entered its territory, and of accusing Ukraine of having bombed a border post, statements that Kiev denies.
“Tonight, two groups of saboteurs from the Ukrainian army went to the Russian border (…) During the clashes the two groups of saboteurs were destroyed. One of the Ukrainian military was captured,” said the head of the Federal Security Service. Russian (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov, during the meeting of the Security Council.
Western countries fear that intensifying fighting in recent days in eastern Ukraine with pro-Russian separatists will provide a pretext for Moscow, which has deployed 150,000 troops to the Ukrainian border, to invade.
The crossing of accusations between Kiev and Moscow undermines the efforts of European leaders to find a diplomatic solution, who urge Putin to hold a summit with the president of the United States, Joe Biden.
The French presidency had announced a summit between Putin and Biden on Sunday but the Kremlin on Monday described the idea as “premature”.
For its part, the White House considers that the invasion of Ukraine is imminent, and accuses Russia of seeking to “crush” the Ukrainian people.
A Russian military operation would be “particularly brutal” and “would cost the lives of Ukrainians and Russians, whether civilians or soldiers,” said US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
Moscow denies having plans to invade Ukraine, but demands guarantees that this former Soviet republic will never join the NATO and the end of the expansion of that alliance to its borders. His demands have so far been rejected by the West.
The separatists for their side reported the death of three civilians in the last 24 hoursas well as the explosion of an ammunition depot in the region of Novazovskaccusing “Ukrainian saboteurs” of it.
The authorities of the two pro-Russian “republics” ordered the mobilization of men in a state of combat and the evacuation of civilians to Russia. Moscow said on Monday that 61,000 people had been evacuated from the area.
The pro-Russian separatists who rose up against Kiev are sustaining a conflict in the east of the country that has left more than 14,000 dead since 2014, after Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian Crimea.
Western countries have threatened devastating economic sanctions in the event of a crackdown on Ukraine.
Source: Ambito
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