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Putin Orders Deployment of Troops to Breakaway Regions in Ukraine
Russian president earlier recognized their independence, escalating tensions with West
Russian infantry fighting vehicles and howitzers Monday in a field approximately 30 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.
By
Ann M. Simmons Follow
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CANCELUPDATE
in Moscow and
Yaroslav Trofimov Follow
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Daily digest
CANCELUPDATE
in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Matthew Luxmoore in London
Updated Feb. 21, 2022 7:48 pm ET
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into two breakaway regions of Ukraine after recognizing their independence, a move that threatened to scuttle negotiations with the West over the future security of Eastern Europe.
His two decrees were published on the Russian government’s legal portal after the end of Mr. Putin’s televised address late Monday. In it he went through a litany of grievances about the West’s support of Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Western arms deliveries to Kyiv as justification for a massive Russian troop buildupon Ukraine’s borders.
Mr. Putin said Russian forces would act in a peacekeeping role once Russia has signed mutual assistance with the two regions.
“The situation in Donbas is becoming critical,” Mr. Putin said of the eastern area of Ukraine, where the two breakaway regions are located. “Ukraine is not just a neighbor. It is an inherent part of our own history, culture and spiritual space,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gathered his national security and defense council for a permanent meeting following Mr. Putin’s speech and was preparing a response, the council’s head said. Mr. Zelensky, who discussed the crisis with President Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, was expected to make a televised address to Ukrainians later in the night.
Territory controlled by or allied to Russia
RUSSIA
KHARKIV
LUHANSK
POLTAVA
Luhansk
Kramatorsk
Kramatorsk
DONBAS
DONETSK
DNIPROPETROVSK
Donetsk
RUSSIA
Area of detail
Area of detail
Kyiv
DONBAS
UKRAINE
ZAPORIZHIA
Mariupol
TRANSNISTRIA
50 mi
CRIMEA
Sea of Azov
50 km
Source: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Emma Brown/The Wall Street Journal
Condemnation from the international community was swift.
The White House said President Biden will issue an executive order that “will prohibit new investment, trade, and financing by U.S. persons’’ in those areas.
Press secretary Jen Psaki said the White House would also announce additional measures. She said those moves would be in addition to economic measures the U.S. has been preparing with allies.
In a statement Monday evening, the European Union’s top officials called the step by Mr. Putin “a blatant violation of international law.”
Watch: Putin Recognizes Independence of Separatist Regions in Ukraine
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Watch: Putin Recognizes Independence of Separatist Regions in Ukraine
President Vladimir Putin announced Monday evening that Russia would recognize the independence of two Moscow-backed breakaway regions in Ukraine, a move Western officials believe could be used to justify an incursion into the territories. Photo: Alexei Nikolsky/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool/AP
They said the EU “will react with sanctions against those involved in this illegal act.”
The French leader, Emmanuel Macron, who holds the EU’s rotating presidency, called on Europe to respond with targeted sanctions and called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
Before the address, Mr. Putin called Mr. Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and told them of his decision, the Kremlin said in a statement. The European leaders expressed their disappointment with this development but indicated their readiness to continue contacts, the Kremlin said.
The decision to recognize the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk came as Ukraine asked the U.N. Security Council for an urgent meeting to tackle the threat of a Russian invasion.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said he made the request Monday after a substantial escalation in military activity between Russian-backed forces and Kyiv government troops.
Deciding to recognize the two territories in Donbas would likely grant the Kremlin greater sway over these regions, already proxies of Moscow.
Russia’s Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, will consider the move to recognize the breakaway regions at a closed meeting Tuesday, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported, a necessary move to formalize the decrees under Russian law.
Russian infantry fighting vehicles in Rostov-on-Don near the Ukraine border.
Military helicopter in the sky of Rostov region in Russia.
Tensions have been steadily rising across the region, despite signs that diplomatic initiatives had been making tentative progress.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has proposed a meeting with Sergei Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, this week in Europe that could lead to a summit between Messrs. Biden and Putin. On Sunday, Mr. Biden agreed in principle to meet the Kremlin leader, provided that Russia pulls back from a potential attack on Ukraine.
But on Monday, Mr. Putin appeared to make the case for invading Russia’s smaller neighbor, describing Ukraine as a tool being used by the West for confrontation with Russia that “poses a very large threat” to the country, he said.
In his lengthy and rambling address, Mr. Putin questioned the territorial legitimacy of Ukraine, saying that “modern Ukraine was entirely created by communist Russia” in a process that “began immediately after the 1917 revolution.”
“Ukraine, in fact, has never had a stable tradition of its true statehood,” he said.
A Ukrainian trench near Zaitseve in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on Monday.PHOTO: MANU BRABO FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Mr. Putin also accused Ukraine of taking a hostile stance toward Russian-controlled areas of Donbas and said the government in Kyiv wasn’t willing to implement the Minsk cease-fire agreement signed after Ukrainian forces were routed in Donbas in 2015. Ukraine has rejected Moscow’s interpretation of the deal, which it says provides Russia’s proxies in the region a veto over any attempt to align Ukraine more closely with the West.
The Russian leader also repeated his objections to Ukraine being allowed to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, saying that Kyiv would use it as an opportunity to forcibly try to retake the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
“If Russia faces such a threat as the admission of Ukraine to NATO, then the threats to our country will increase,” he said.
News of Mr. Putin’s decision to recognize the breakaway territories’ independence was greeted with cheers on the streets there. Russian state media showed people waving Russian flags, embracing and hoisting bottles of champagne.
Markets were unsettled by the latest developments.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTSWhat is your outlook on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine? Join the conversation below.
Russian stocks, the ruble and European shares fell, while oil prices rose, as investors grew nervous at signs of escalation between Moscow and the West.
U.S. stock markets were closed on Monday. The MOEX, Russia’s benchmark stock index, dropped 10.5%, which was the largest daily percentage decline since March 2014 during Russia’s invasion of Crimea.
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