Russian call to recognize rebel regions | Defender of the Great Lakes
Eusebio R. Sheffield
3 min read
news, world
Russia’s lower house of parliament voted on Tuesday to ask President Vladimir Putin to recognize two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent and the European Union told Moscow not to follow through. The State Duma’s decision, if approved, could further inflame a wider standoff over a Russian military buildup near Ukraine that has fueled Western fears that Moscow could attack. Russia denies any invasion plan. Recognition of the self-proclaimed peoples of Donetsk and Luhansk could kill the Minsk peace process in eastern Ukraine, where a conflict in the region known as Donbass between government forces and Moscow-backed separatists has claimed the lives of 15,000 people. “Kiev does not respect the Minsk agreements. Our citizens and compatriots who live in the Donbass need our help and support,” wrote on social networks Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the State Duma and member of the party. in power pro-Putin United Russia. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters: “If the recognition decision is taken, Russia will de facto and de jure withdraw from the Minsk agreements with all the ensuing consequences.” At a press conference in Moscow, Putin refused to be fired on how he planned to react. He said that the Russians were sympathetic to the people of the Donbass region, but he wanted the regions’ problems to be solved through the Minsk agreements. Using blunt language that visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called “false”, the Kremlin chief said Russia views the treatment of ethnic Russians in the Donbass region as “genocide”. Moscow presents the conflict in eastern Ukraine as a civil war, but Ukraine and the West say Russia is helping the separatists with its own ground forces, which Moscow denies. Russia has issued more than 700,000 passports to residents of eastern Ukraine since separatists seized the territory there in 2014, shortly after Russia annexed Crimea. The top European Union diplomat warned Moscow against recognizing the regions, saying it would be a flagrant violation of the Minsk agreements and that Brussels supported Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty. Australian Associated Press
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Russia’s lower house of parliament voted on Tuesday to ask President Vladimir Putin to recognize two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent and the European Union told Moscow not to follow through.
The State Duma’s decision, if approved, could further inflame a wider standoff over a Russian military buildup near Ukraine that has fueled Western fears that Moscow could attack. Russia denies any invasion plan.
Recognition of the self-proclaimed peoples of Donetsk and Luhansk could kill the Minsk peace process in eastern Ukraine, where a conflict in the region known as Donbass between government forces and Moscow-backed separatists has claimed the lives of 15,000 people.
“Kiev does not respect the Minsk agreements. Our citizens and compatriots who live in the Donbass need our help and support,” wrote on social networks Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the State Duma and member of the party. in power pro-Putin United Russia.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters: “If the recognition decision is taken, Russia will de facto and de jure withdraw from the Minsk agreements with all the ensuing consequences.”
At a press conference in Moscow, Putin refused to be fired on how he planned to react. He said that the Russians were sympathetic to the people of the Donbass region, but he wanted the regions’ problems to be solved through the Minsk agreements.
Using blunt language that visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called “false”, the Kremlin chief said Russia views the treatment of ethnic Russians in the Donbass region as “genocide”.
Moscow presents the conflict in eastern Ukraine as a civil war, but Ukraine and the West say Russia is helping the separatists with its own ground forces, which Moscow denies.
Russia has issued more than 700,000 passports to residents of eastern Ukraine since separatists seized the territory there in 2014, shortly after Russia annexed Crimea.
The top European Union diplomat warned Moscow against recognizing the regions, saying it would be a flagrant violation of the Minsk agreements and that Brussels supported Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty.
Australian Associated Press
