Kyiv, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday acknowledged the independence of two Russian-backed breakaway republics within the east of Ukraine. Following the announcement, Putin instructed the Russian Ministry of Protection to offer “peacekeeping capabilities” to the breakaway areas, but it surely was unclear if Russian forces had crossed into Ukraine, CBS News’ Mary Ilyushina reviews.
The Biden administration warned final week that recognizing the self-declared “Folks’s Republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk, in jap Ukraine’s Donbas area, would violate worldwide legislation and Ukraine’s sovereignty, and would “necessitate a swift and agency response” from America and its allies.
Additionally Monday, Michael Carpenter, the U.S. ambassador to the Group for Safety and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), mentioned at a particular OSCE assembly on the disaster that the U.S. has acquired reviews of “pressured mobilization of males and boys, taken towards their will to meeting factors after which on to the entrance traces within the Russian-controlled components of Donetsk and Luhansk.” An OSCE spokesperson advised CBS News that “we assume that the lads and boys are being conscripted towards their will for a doable navy engagement.”
The Russian chief’s choice Monday successfully indicators that Moscow is not taken with negotiating with the West to discover a diplomatic decision to the Ukraine disaster primarily based on cease-fire offers hammered out eight years in the past, which have been constantly pointed to by each side as the one viable framework for an settlement.
Putin introduced throughout a rare public assembly of his safety council in Moscow earlier that he would determine whether or not to formally acknowledge the independence of the breakaway republics. Throughout that assembly, members of the council made impassioned speeches in assist of the transfer.
“The objective of our assembly right this moment is to hearken to our colleagues and map out our subsequent strikes on this matter, that means each the requests by the leaders of the Donetsk Folks’s Republic and Luhansk Folks’s Republic to Russia asking to acknowledge their sovereignty,” Putin opened the assembly by saying.
On the finish of the occasion, he advised the council: “I’ve heard your opinions. The choice will probably be taken right this moment.”
Sputnik/Alexey Nikolsky/Kremlin/REUTERS
When the Russian parliament voted to ship Putin the identical request 5 days in the past, doubtlessly recognizing Luhansk and Donetsk as unbiased, it was seen as a manner for the Russian chief to extend stress on Kyiv with out taking direct navy motion, however the West made it clear at that stage that it might be thought of one other severe provocation.
Doing so “would additional undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned final week, and “represent a gross violation of worldwide legislation.”
Within the wake of the announcement, Blinken on Monday introduced that every one State Division personnel stationed in Lviv have been requested to briefly transfer. They’ll “spend the evening in Poland,” the place they’ll proceed to work, Blinken mentioned, however will “usually return to proceed their diplomatic work in Ukraine and supply emergency consular providers.”
Following Putin’s announcement, White Home press secretary Jen Psaki issued a press release calling the transfer a “blatant violation of Russia’s worldwide commitments,” and she or he mentioned President Biden would have the authority to impose sanctions on “any particular person decided to function” within the breakaway areas. A White Home spokesperson mentioned later Monday that “we plan to announce new sanctions on Russia tomorrow in response to Moscow’s choices and actions right this moment,” including, “we’re coordinating with Allies and companions on that announcement.”
“To be clear: these measures are separate from and can be along with the swift and extreme financial measures now we have been making ready in coordination with Allies and companions ought to Russia additional invade Ukraine,” Psaki mentioned.
NATO Secretary-Basic Jens Stoltenberg mentioned the transfer “additional undermines Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” and “erodes efforts in direction of a decision of the battle.”
“Allies urge Russia, within the strongest doable phrases, to decide on the trail of diplomacy,” Stoltenberg mentioned in a press release.
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Blinken mentioned final week that if Putin have been to formally acknowledge Luhansk and Donetsk, that act in itself would “necessitate a swift and agency response from america in full coordination with our Allies and companions.”
Putin’s announcement, which he delivered in pre-recorded remarks televised on Monday night in Russia, and signing of decrees didn’t make Russia’s formal recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk “republics” closing. Russian lawmakers will now must draft a brand new piece of laws declaring the nation’s recognition of the 2 areas, which can then return to Putin for a signature.
However with Putin’s assertion of his intent on Monday, there was little room for doubt of the end result. The query is what he would possibly truly do subsequent on the bottom, the place he has as many as 190,000 of his troops poised to invade Ukraine — together with alongside the border of the very areas he mentioned Russia will quickly not acknowledge as Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine referred to as an pressing assembly of the U.N. Safety Council on Monday in response to Russia’s actions. Talking on the assembly, Biden’s U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield mentioned that Putin was asserting that “Russia right this moment has a rightful declare to all territories — all territories from the Russian empire — the identical Russian empire from earlier than the Soviet Union, from over 100 years in the past,” CBS News’ Pamela Falk reviews from the U.N.
“In essence, Putin needs the world to journey again in time,” Thomas-Greenfield mentioned. “To a time earlier than the United Nations. To a time when empires dominated the world. However the remainder of the world has moved ahead. It’s not 1919. It’s 2022!”
Following the playbook
Russia seems to be following steps in a playbook for an invasion of Ukraine that the U.S. authorities not solely predicted, however warned all the world to observe for lower than per week in the past.
On Thursday final week, Blinken laid out the steps the U.S. believed Russia would take if Putin determined to launch a full-scale assault on Ukraine. He advised the United Nations Safety Council on February 17 that Russia would first stage false-flag incidents “to manufacture a pretext for its assault.”
That first stage has been nicely underway since late final week, in keeping with the U.S. and its allies, with a dramatic improve in claims by Russia and the rebels in Ukraine’s jap Donbas area of atrocities by Ukrainian forces — all of which have been firmly denied by Ukraine.
Lots of the movies and pictures posted on-line by the pro-Russian separatists as purported proof of Ukraine’s violent acts have been discredited as poor fakes — together with a video launched Monday allegedly exhibiting a person writhing in agony after his leg was severed by a Ukrainian shell. There is no blood seen within the video, and whereas the screaming man is lacking half a leg, the video seems to point out an attachment already fitted to his higher leg to which a prosthetic limb may be hooked up.
Having established a false pretext, Blinken mentioned final week, “the best ranges of the Russian Authorities might theatrically convene emergency conferences to handle the so-called disaster.”
That match the outline of the assembly Putin convened on Monday of his Nationwide Safety Council “to debate the state of affairs within the Donbas.” Tv cameras often present solely the start of those conferences in Russia, however Monday’s was aired in its entirety as Putin took a tough line and made it clear that American and NATO proposals to ease the strain had didn’t fulfill Russia’s calls for.
Blinken additionally made it clear on the U.N. {that a} dramatic assembly of high Russian officers making daring proclamations, similar to people who emerged from the Nationwide Safety Council assembly on Monday, was not anticipated to be the ultimate step.
“Subsequent, the assault is deliberate to start,” Blinken mentioned on the U.N. “Russian missiles and bombs will drop throughout Ukraine. Communications will probably be jammed. Cyberattacks will shut down key Ukrainian establishments. After that, Russian tanks and troopers will advance on key targets which have already been recognized and mapped out in detailed plans. We imagine these targets embrace Russia’s capital — Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, a metropolis of two.8 million folks.”
As CBS News senior nationwide safety correspondent David Martin reported on Sunday, U.S. intelligence companies imagine President Putin has already given the order to his commanders surrounding Ukraine to proceed with an invasion, and that these commanders are actually making particular plans for find out how to maneuver on the battlefield.
CBS News’ Margaret Brennan, Pamela Falk, Fin Gomez and Alex Sundby contributed to this report.
