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Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the Defense Ministry to deploy Russian "peacekeeping forces" in the two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, whose independence he recognized earlier tonight by decree.
As the Kremlin officially announced earlier, before the speech, the Russian president contacted his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and informed them of his decision to recognize the independence of Donbass, the eastern regions of Ukraine, Donetsk and Lugansk, "in the near future."
According to the same source, both Paris and Berlin expressed their disappointment with the Russian president's decision.
In his speech, Putin took a historical route to the creation of the Ukrainian state, referred to Crimea and its secession after the 2014 referendum, and directly accused the US and NATO of threatening Russia by moving offensive weapons close to its territory. He stressed in no uncertain terms that he would never accept Ukraine's membership of NATO, as in that case, Russia could be subjected to a military strike on its hinterland, even beyond the Urals.
Analysts said Vladimir Putin is "gathering negotiating weapons" in his quiver, both with the presence of the Russian army on the border with Ukraine and with the move to recognize the independence of the two regions, in which the vast majority of residents are Russian-speaking. According to what the Russian President said at the Security Council meeting held in the Kremlin, Putin wants to offer negotiating advantages to the Russian Foreign Minister.
Vladimir Putin's speech
The Russian president reviewed the historical events that preceded and resulted in the dissolution of the former Soviet Union and the creation of the Ukrainian state, saying that Lenin handed Donbass, i.e. Donetsk and Lugansk, over to the jurisdiction of Ukraine, stressing that "Russia created Ukraine."
Turning to the energy issue, Putin highlighted "Ukraine's attempt to steal natural gas from Russia" and spoke of a neo-Nazi movement developing in Ukraine, with "many attacks on Russia" and "copying foreign models that have nothing to do with them."
Putin blamed the US for the incidents in the 2014 uprising in Maidan, saying the protesters had the secret support of the US embassy. Those forces pushed Ukraine into a civil war. Ukraine is a country divided. In 2020, 60,000 scientists left Ukraine. They have no money to live on. This is because of the problems they inherited from the Soviet era. Millions of jobs were lost. Ukraine has lost its scientific and research personnel.
It is a country in collapse and US agents control the corruption prevention agency in Ukraine. They are introducing legislation that discriminates against Russians and have abolished the Russian language in schools. We have documents that prove all this. The current leadership in Ukraine is not responding to the demands of the Ukrainian people.
Recently we have also heard statements from Kiev that it wants to create nuclear weapons. It has such expertise, with a long history in this field, and will threaten Russia, especially if it has the support of other countries. And so Europe will find itself in a destabilising situation. Westerners have transferred billions of dollars worth of arms and advisers to Ukraine. All these moves are aimed at Russia. And NATO has been conducting exercises and wants to use facilities in Ukraine to spy from there on Russian territory. Ukraine allows NATO to use its ports in the Black Sea. The US wanted to use the facilities in Crimea, but the people of Crimea, in the 2014 referendum, did not allow it.
Under international treaties, the deployment of military forces on Ukrainian territory is prohibited. As the Westerners brought in soldiers as advisors. International law says that a country cannot base its security against the security of another country.
NATO members in Europe were used by the US to create policies against Russia. NATO has told Ukraine that it can join if it adapts to its rules and addresses corruption. Despite all the assurances we have been given, they have started to say that the central and eastern countries will be able to join NATO and will be released from their obligations under the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union. Russia fulfilled all its commitments by withdrawing troops from East Germany.
I asked Clinton why they wanted eastward expansion and he said they didn't want to see such a large country in the region. They have put so many eastern countries into NATO, proving that the west is not following their commitments. Even in Romania, NATO deployed Tomahawk offensive missiles. NATO is constantly expanding. These weapons can be used for a direct attack on our country. There is a direct threat of an attack on Russia. NATO has shown Russia as the main enemy of the alliance.
Many Ukrainians do not want to see military aircraft and spy weapons against Russia. The Pentagon has begun deploying a number of missiles that could hit Russia even deep into the Russian hinterland, beyond the Urals. And as has been done in the past, they could carry weapons systems near our border.
We will never agree to further NATO expansion. We ask for written guarantees of this from NATO countries. And of course they tried to bring the discussion to other issues. We also proposed not installing and deploying offensive weapons on our borders. And we have it written in the founding agreement of NATO. They threaten us with sanctions, but they have not seen how strong and modern our country has become. They can sanction us without any formal justification and harm our national integrity and interests, but they will not achieve anything.
As for the situation in Donbass, Kiev keeps showing that it does not want to implement the agreements. It wants to wage a war with many victims, but I will remind them how the last conflict ended.
I consider it necessary to take a decision that I should have taken a long time ago, to recognise the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk and, of course, to sign a Pact of Friendship and Cooperation with the two regions."
I consider it necessary to take a decision that I should have taken a long time ago, to recognise the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk and, of course, to sign a Pact of Friendship and Cooperation with the two regions.
What the Russian president said at the preceding security council
Vladimir Putin spoke about developments on the Ukrainian border on Monday before an extraordinary meeting of the Russian Security Council.
The Russian president noted that "if Russia faces the risk of Ukraine joining NATO, the threat to our country will increase substantially," adding that Kiev has no intention of fulfilling the Minsk agreements. However, on this issue, he noted that Emmanuel Macron told him that the Ukrainian leadership is ready to implement the Minsk peace process and is working on new ideas for holding elections in the two breakaway regions.
The Russian president said he would consider the request to make the Donetsk and Lugansk regions independent, submitted by their separatist leaders, stressing that "all these years, and I want to emphasize this, the people living in these territories have been bullied, bombed and excluded from everything. At the same time they forced families to live in bad conditions, in basements". "Our decision will be announced today," Putin added, adding that he has received threats and blackmail from the West on this issue.
Putin also said that his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron told him, in their conversation, that Washington had changed its stance on Moscow's demands for security guarantees, without knowing more. "My colleagues from other countries tell me that my American counterpart has given assurances that Ukraine will not be accepted tomorrow by NATO," he noted, adding that "in Russia they don't see it as a concession, but simply as the implementation of the West's plans." "You believe that we should wait and prepare Ukraine for NATO membership. Well, this is a moratorium. Not for us, but for yourselves," Putin said.
Moreover, he mentioned Russia's intention to peacefully resolve the conflict in Donbass, but "the Kiev authorities have twice carried out punitive military operations in these territories" and "the situation is escalating for the third time."
The Russian president will have telephone contact with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz later in the day in a last-ditch diplomatic effort to put the brakes on dramatic situations.
Source: Proto Thema
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