Amid heightened tensions with Ukraine, the Kremlin on Monday said that Russian President Vladimir Putin would recognize the Russia-backed separatist territories in Ukraine. This comes after Putin convened a meeting with his top officials where he talked about recognizing the “independence” of the separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.
The United Nations has warned Russia against a ‘unilateral action’ that could ‘undermine’ Ukraine’s sovereignty, according to news agency AFP.
Following Putin’s statement, Ukrainian President Zelensky convened a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. In a tweet, Zelensky said, “Given the statements made at the meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, I held urgent consultations with Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz and convened the National Security and Defense Council.” Follow Russia-Ukraine crisisLIVE updates
Here are the top developments of today on the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
Putin’s push for independence of separatist regions in Ukraine
In the meeting with top officials on Monday, Vladimir Putin briefed about the origin of the conflict, starting from the 2014 coup in Ukraine.
After the 2014 coup in Ukraine, part of the population did not accept the outcome. Let me remind you that this was an anti-constitutional, blood-shedding coup that killed many innocent people. It was truly an armed coup. Nobody can argue that,” Putin said.
“Some of the country’s citizens did not accept the coup. They were residents of Crimea and the people who currently live in Donbass. Those people declared that they were establishing two independent republics, the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic. This was the point when the confrontation started between the Kiev officials and the people living on that territory,” he added.
Putin said Russia has exerted efforts and still continues to make efforts to resolve all the complicated aspects and tragic developments by “peaceful means”.
Putin’s statement was followed by televised statements by separatist leaders, who pleaded with the Russian premier to recognize them as independent states. They also asked him to sign friendship treaties, which would provide them military aid against what they call the ongoing “Ukrainian military offensive”.
Biden-Putin meeting still on?
Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden have tentatively agreed to meet to douse tensions over Ukraine. While the White House says the meeting will only happen if Russia does not invade Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that “it’s premature to talk about specific plans for a summit”.
Besides this, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken are also going to meet on Thursday.
However, with Russia’s move to recognize rebel territories in Ukraine, the fate of the meeting between the presidents of Russia and the US is uncertain.
Standoff continues on Ukraine’s eastern front
Both Russia and Ukraine charged each other of aggression as troops of both countries remained stationed on the border.
In recent days, heavy shelling has increased between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatist groups in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas.
On Monday, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed that a shell fired from Ukrainian territory completely destroyed a Russian border guard post in Russia’s Rostov region. Ukraine denied shelling the border facility, terminating Moscow’s claim as “fake news”.
Russian military also claimed that Ukrainian forces tried to enter its territory in armed vehicles. However, Ukraine again dismissed the accusation as “fake news”.
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