Our goal is to listen to our allies and determine our next steps, Putin said.
Moscow:
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday he would decide by the end of the day whether to recognize Ukraine’s two rebel regions as independent, a move that could spark a potentially devastating conflict with Kiev’s western-backed government. Is.
Presiding over a lengthy and carefully stage-managed meeting of his powerful Security Council, Putin overheard senior officials saying it was time for Russia to recognize separate regions of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent Is.
“I have heard your opinion. The decision will be taken today,” the Russian leader said after the meeting.
Such a recognition would put an end to an already shaky peace plan in the separatist conflict, which has raged since 2014 after Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine and released more than 14,000 people.
Russia could then move troops to protect the hundreds of thousands of residents in the areas who were given Russian passports, justifying the intervention as a way of protecting its citizens.
Ukraine will either have to accept the loss of a large part of the territory, or face armed conflict with its much more powerful neighbour.
Putin told the Security Council that there was “no prospect” for a 2015 Minsk peace deal aimed at resolving the conflict and clarified that the stakes were bigger than former Soviet Ukraine, whose efforts to join NATO and the European Union have led Moscow to deeply offended.
A ‘huge threat’ to Russia
“Using Ukraine as an instrument of confrontation with our country poses a serious, very great threat to us,” Putin said.
The dramatic meeting – with Putin sitting alone at a desk as his government, military and security chiefs addressed him from a stage – came after weeks of tension between Moscow and the West over Ukraine.
Western leaders are warning that Russia is planning to invade its pro-Western neighbor after mobilizing more than 150,000 troops on its borders, a claim Moscow has repeatedly denied.
Ukraine on Monday urged an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to deal with the threat, citing security assurances received in return for the abandonment of its nuclear arsenal in 1994.
“At the initiative of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, I officially request UNSC Member States to immediately consult under Article Six of the Budapest Memorandum,” tweeted Foreign Minister Dimitro Kuleba, citing the landmark 1994 deal, Which was also signed by Russia, the United States and Britain. ,
Tensions have escalated in recent days following heavy shelling along Ukraine’s eastern border with separatists and a series of alleged incidents along the border with Russia.
In one of the most potentially dangerous, Moscow claimed – to the furious Kiev denial – that its forces intercepted and killed five Ukrainian saboteurs infiltrating Russian territory, and opened fire on a border post on Ukraine. accused of.
‘Crush them, hurt them’
Kiev, concerned that Russia is building a narrative to justify an invasion, immediately denied all allegations, which are being widely circulated on Russian state media, and Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba took to Twitter. took.
“No, Ukraine did not: attack Donetsk or Lugansk, sabotage or send APCs (armored personnel carriers) to the Russian border, cross Russian territory, shell Russian border, conduct acts of sabotage,” he said.
“Even Ukraine does not plan any such action. Russia, now shut down your counterfeit-producing factory,” he wrote.
European leaders are attempting to broker a diplomatic offer, urging Putin to hold a summit with his American counterpart Joe Biden, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he would meet with his American counterpart in Geneva on Thursday. Meet your counterpart.
But any hope of diplomacy was faltering, especially in Washington and Kiev.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC News that the Russian invasion of its neighbor would be an “extremely violent” operation followed by brutal capture.
“There will be a war waged by Russia to suppress, crush, harm the Ukrainian people,” the White House official said.
Visiting Brussels, Culeba cautiously welcomed a French effort to arrange a summit of top leaders on the crisis.
“We believe that every effort aimed at a diplomatic solution is worth the effort,” he said.
But Defense Minister Oleksey Reznikov said there were no signs of Russian forces withdrawing from the border and Moscow-backed rebels continued to shell out Ukrainian posts.
In recent weeks, according to US intelligence, Moscow has amassed an assault force of troops, tanks, missile batteries and warships around Ukraine’s borders in Belarus, Russia, Crimea and the Black Sea.
Biden has said US intelligence believes Putin has decided to invade Ukraine and that commanders are preparing units to attack within days.
Western powers have threatened a severe sanctions package if Russia invades.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
,