Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday he’s considering recognizing the “sovereignty” of two small eastern Ukrainian regions — a move U.S. officials had warned Moscow might make to justify sending in Russian military forces to “protect” the breakaway regions.
In remarks mirroring the political theater that Mr. Putin engaged in back in 2014 when Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, the Russian president told his Security Council on Monday that the breakaway pro-Russian enclaves in Donetsk and Luhansk have “appealed” for recognition and support. The comments also offer a window into what Mr. Putin is willing to settle for to call off a direct military clash with Ukraine and threatened economic sanctions from the U.S. and Europe.
Mr. Putin spoke as the Russian military separately claimed Monday to have killed a group of five Ukrainian military “saboteurs” it said had “breached” the Russian border — a claim Ukraine quickly labeled as “fake” news, according to Reuters.
The two developments came after a week of warnings from Biden administration officials that the Putin government might create fake claims to fabricate the pretext for a Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin is demanding NATO drop any plans to add Ukraine as a member and more broadly to pull back troops and weaponry across Russia’s western borders with Europe.
U.S. and NATO officials say Russian has amassed some 150,000 troops near the borders with Ukraine, and President Biden said late last week he believed Mr. Putin had already made the decision to invade.
The announcements about Donetsk and Luhansk — two self-proclaimed “republics” in eastern Ukraine engaged in a stalemated civil war with the Western-backed Kyiv government has been underway since 2014 — appeared to be carefully coordinated with officials on the ground. Reuters reported that Mr. Putin’s remarks came after the heads of the two regions had issued public appeals to the Russian president to recognize their independence.
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CNN reported that Mr. Putin told his security advisers in comments aired on Russian state television that “the purpose of today’s meeting is to listen to colleagues and to determine our further steps in this direction, including the appeal from the leaders of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic to Russia seeking recognition of their sovereignty and the resolution of the state Duma on the same subject.”
U.S. officials have been closely watching for such an announcement over the past week.
Russia’s national parliament, the Duma, earlier this month approved a resolution urging Mr. Putin to recognize the “independent” republics, and Russian media has been filled with stories of alleged aggression by the Kyiv government against the breakaway regions.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken asserted that Kremlin approval of such an appeal would amount to Moscow’s “wholesale rejection” of diplomatic agreements reached in Minsk, Belarus, in 2015, after Russia had annexed Crimea from Ukraine.
The Minks agreements “outline the process for the full political, social, and economic reintegration of those parts of Ukraine’s Donbass region controlled by Russia-led forces and political proxies since 2014,” the secretary of state said.
If Mr. Putin were to formally recognize Donetsk and Luhansk, it would “constitute a gross violation of international law, call into further question Russia’s stated commitment to continue to engage in diplomacy to achieve a peaceful resolution of this crisis, and necessitate a swift and firm response from the United States in full coordination with our allies and partners,” Mr. Blinken said.
But Russian recognition and military support for the “republics” could pose its own dilemma for the U.S. and NATO, which have been bracing for a full-scale Russian military invasion of its neighbor and the seizure of Kyiv. A more limited step by the Kremlin would pose a challenge to the Biden administration and its allies on how forcefully to respond.
Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of failing to implement promises in the Minsk agreements, which call for a cease-fire and discussions on greater autonomy for the pro-Russian regions while remaining part of Ukraine.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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