23 February,2022 07:18 AM IST | Moscow | Agencies
People from the Donetsk region, the territory controlled by pro-Russia separatist governments in eastern Ukraine, leave a train to be taken to temporary residences in Nizhny Novgorod on Tuesday. Pic/AP
Russia announced Tuesday that its recognition of independence for areas in eastern Ukraine extends to territory currently held by Ukrainian forces - further raising the stakes amid Western fears that a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine is imminent.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia has recognized the rebel regions' independence "in borders that existed when they proclaimed" their independence in 2014.
Ukrainian forces later reclaimed control of large part of both regions during a nearly eight-year conflict that has killed over 14,000 people.
The announcement comes a day after Russia said it would recognize the independence - but didn't say exactly what it considered the borders of those areas to be. The move was widely seen in the West to presage a Russian invasion.
Western leaders have denounced the move and said they are preparing to announce sanctions.
Russian officials haven't yet acknowledged any troop deployments to the rebel east, but Vladislav Brig, a member of the separatist local council in Donetsk, told reporters that the Russian troops already had moved in the region's north and west. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sought to project calm, telling the country in an address overnight, "We are not afraid of anyone or anything. We don't owe anyone anything. And we won't give anything to anyone." His foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, will be in Washington on Tuesday to meet Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the State Department said.
The White House issued an executive order to prohibit U.S. investment and trade in the separatist regions, and additional measures - likely sanctions - were to be announced Tuesday. Those sanctions are independent of what Washington has prepared in the event of a Russian invasion, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Tuesday the U.K. will also introduce "immediate" economic sanctions against Russia. He said Putin had "completely torn up international law" and British sanctions would target not just the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk but "Russian economic interests as hard as we can." EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said, "Russian troops have entered in Donbas," adding, "I wouldn't say that (it is) a fully-fledged invasion, but Russian troops are on Ukrainian soil" and the EU would decide on sanctions later on Tuesday.
Putin announced the move in an hourlong televised speech, blaming the U.S. and its allies for the current crisis and describing Ukraine's bid to join NATO as an existential challenge to Russia. "Ukraine's membership in NATO poses a direct threat to Russia's security," he said.
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