Feb 21, 2022: President Vladimir Putin said Russia would decide on Monday whether to recognize two separatist territories in eastern Ukraine as independent.
He made the remarks at the end of a televised Security Council meeting in which a series of officials discussed the situation in the two self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine.
Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian government forces in the Donbas region since 2014, in a conflict that has claimed nearly 15,000 lives according to Kyiv. Russia’s recognition of the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk will bury a fragile peace process that has fueled the long-running conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Western nations have warned Russia not to recognize a separatist republic, saying it would amount to “gross violations of international law.”
At a meeting in the Kremlin on Monday, Putin listened to top Russian officials for an hour and a half to make a case for recognition. The Russian leaders sat behind a table as they summoned their security, defense, intelligence and other top officials one by one to present their case. The meeting, which took place in the early afternoon, was broadcast on state television.
Earlier on Monday, the rebel leaders of the self-proclaimed republic made a concerted appeal to Putin that Moscow recognize them. Russia’s parliament has also asked Putin to recognize pro-Moscow separatist regions, which have declared independence from Kyiv after Ukraine’s pro-EU revolution in 2014.
The decision to recognize the territories came as Ukraine’s conflict escalated on Monday, with Moscow claiming to have killed five Ukrainian “saboteurs” crossing its border. Ukraine said “not a single one of our soldiers crossed the border with the Russian Federation and not a single one was killed today.”
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