Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with leaders of France and Germany on Monday, stating that he fully planned to sign a decree that recognized the two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent entities some time soon, according to the Kremlin.
Leaders from both countries expressed their disappointment after hearing the decision from the Kremlin, they said in a readout of the telephone calls. The move by Moscow is also likely to be a a chance to bid for a summit that would stop Russian from invading the Ukraine.
via Newsmax:
Separately, Moscow said Ukrainian military saboteurs had tried to enter Russian territory in armed vehicles leading to five deaths, an accusation dismissed as “fake news” by Kyiv.
Both developments fit a pattern repeatedly predicted by Western governments, who accuse Russia of preparing to fabricate a pretext to invade Ukraine by blaming Kyiv for attacks and relying on pleas for help from separatist proxies.
Recognition by Moscow of the rebel regions’ independence will narrow the diplomatic options to avoid war, since it is an explicit rejection of a seven-year-old ceasefire mediated by France and Germany, touted as the framework for future negotiations on the wider crisis.
Just hours earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron seemed to give hope for a diplomatic resolution to this current crisis, stating that both Putin and Biden had agreed in principle to meet.
“But the Kremlin said there were no specific plans for a summit. The White House said Biden had accepted the meeting ‘in principle’ but only ‘if an invasion hasn’t happened,'” the story revealed.
“In Washington, President Joe Biden summoned his top security advisers. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, could be seen entering the White House on the President’s Day holiday,” Newsmax reported.
“Washington says Russia has massed a force numbering 169,000-190,000 troops in the region, including the pro-Russian rebels in the breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, and could invade within days. The recognition of the rebel-held areas could also provide a pretext for Russian troops to cross the border into those areas,” the report stated.
Russia has denied any plans to launch an attack on its neighbor, though it has made threats of unspecified “military-technical” action unless it is granted major security guarantees, including a promise Ukraine will refrain from joining NATO.