President, Vladimir Putin, has said that Russia’s interests and security are non-negotiable, amid reports of more Russian troops moving closer towards Ukraine’s borders.
Mr. Putin disclosed Russia’s stance in his address, hours after US President, Joe Biden warned of “the beginning of a Russian invasion”.
Although Mr. Putin has said Russia was “open for direct and honest dialogue”, he showed full confidence in the military.
The West has announced a range of sanctions on Russian interests. Mr Biden said: “We’ve cut off Russia’s government from Western financing,” after Russia’s upper House of Parliament authorised the President to send troops into two parts of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
Mr. Putin disclosed on Monday (February 21, 2022) night that Russia recognised the independence of the so-called people’s republics of Luhansk and Donetsk, tearing up a peace accord with Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry urged all its citizens to leave Russia and warned that the “escalating Russia aggression against Ukraine” could limit consular assistance. The military in Kyiv also announced it was evacuating all reservists aged 18 to 60, both officers and privates for a maximum of a year.
Meanwhile, in the rebel-held areas, separatist leader, Denis Pushilin, averred military mobilisation was gathering pace to counter what he described as Ukrainian aggression. Pushilin added that he could also ask Russia for help. Appearing alongside him, was a senior official from Russia’s ruling United Russia party, who said 93,000 people have been evacuated to Russia.
Reports suggested Moscow had begun the evacuation of its embassy in Kyiv and also lowered its flag there.
President Putin’s claim that the military would “maintain peace” was considered “nonsense” by the West. Rejecting his false claim of genocide in eastern Ukraine, UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, said he was concerned about “the perversion of the concept of peacekeeping”.
Mr. Biden said, “to put it simply, Russia just announced that it is carving out a big chunk of Ukraine”.
Despite Mr. Putin’s insistence that he was still open to diplomacy, France’s Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, both cancelled planned meetings with Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov.
French Foreign Minister, Le Drian, later averred Mr Putin’s aim was to “negate” Ukraine as a sovereign country. German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, said Mr. Putin was trying to turn back the wheel of history. But both said they were open to further negotiations with Moscow.
It is not yet clear if any Russian troops have crossed the border into Ukraine. However, US satellite imagery has suggested several deployments of new troops and equipment in western Russia, with more than 100 vehicles at airfields in Belarus near Ukraine’s border.
Mr. Biden announced an initial tranche of measures, targeting high-ranking Russian “elites” and its foreign debt, to prevent it from raising state financing from Western financial institutions.
European Commission Vice President, Vera Jourova stated that it was a mistake to exclude the Russian leader.
“Vladimir Putin should be first on the list,” says Jourova.
British Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss has said the UK would use “every lever at our disposal” to stop Russia’s threats against Ukraine.
Responding to criticism from some British MPs that the UK government had not gone far enough, Ms. Truss noted in a publication that G7 allies had agreed on further sanctions and “nothing is off the table”.
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