The crisis in Ukraine precipitates dramatically. In a surprise move, yesterday Russian President Vladimir Putin first announced the recognition of the independence of the self-proclaimed breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, and then ordered the sending of troops to the Donbass region for the purpose, it is the Kremlin’s version. , to “ensure peace”. “We are not afraid of Russia”, the reply of the Ukrainian president, Volodimyr Zelensky, who in a speech to the nation reiterated that the Ukrainians will not give up “a single piece” of the country. Meanwhile, the US has moved its diplomats to Poland for the night for security reasons.
The crisis in Ukraine precipitates dramatically. In a surprise move, Russian President Vladimir Putin first announced recognition of the independence of the self-proclaimed separatist republics of Donetsk and Luganskthen order the dispatch of troops to the Donbass region with the aim, in the Kremlin’s version, of “ensuring peace”. The hopes of a diplomatic solution that flourished during the night between Sunday and Monday have therefore vanished like a dream in the light of day. To dispel the artillery shells that resumed early in the morning and the harsh barrage of hostile declarations that arose from Moscow, culminating at the end of the day with Putin’s announcement.
In the evening, a column of armored vehicles was reported in the Republic of Donetsk by the Russian agency Interfax, which cites witnesses on the spot.
And an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Ukraine has been requested for the evening of today, Monday. This was reported by some diplomats, according to AFP reports.
At the end of a very long TV speech to the nation, the head of the Kremlin signed the decree recognizing the pro-Russian entities alongside the heads of the two rebel ‘states’, unleashing the condemnation of all Western leaders. The US president Joe Biden immediately called German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron. The United States has already announced the first sanctions on investments and trade in the Donbass, to which others will obviously be added. L’European Union is preparing to do so tomorrow, with the current president Macron who for the moment has spoken of “targeted” measures. Even London, its Foreign Minister Liz Truss said, will announce a further squeeze on Russia.
Putin’s river talk on TV resulted in a harsh harangue against the Ukrainian leaders, accused of all wickedness, and against the West. “Ukraine has already lost its sovereignty”, becoming the servant “of the Western masters”, attacked the Tsar. And then accuse NATO of already being practically present on Ukrainian territory, directly threatening Russia’s security. “Western weapons have arrived in Ukraine in a steady stream, there are regular military exercises in the west of Ukraine, the goal is to hit Russia,” he said, adding that “NATO troops are taking part in these exercises. , at least 10 are underway, and the NATO contingents in Ukraine could grow rapidly “.
The prospects for a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine, and in general for the tug-of-war that has been pitting Russia and the West for months, therefore seem to be completely disappearing. Just hours before the Tsar’s breakthrough, Macron had completed a long day of telephone consultations that seemed to pave the way for a summit between Putin and Biden. Then a series of frozen showers, one after the other. Putin is not against seeing Biden, but first the objectives of the summit must be established, Russian Foreign Minister Serghei Lavrov pointed out. The meeting “is possible”, he tried to counter the Elysée. But then the head of the Kremlin himself thought about dispelling the illusions. At that point the White House raised the alarm for “an extremely violent attack on Ukraine possible in the next few days or hours”. And it all seemed to inevitably roll into conflict. Putin’s decision to benefit the rebel republics in eastern Ukraine was made after a lengthy meeting of the National Security Council and was announced to Macron and Scholz before being made public. The previous hours had seen new violations of the ceasefire in Donbass. But above all a series of very serious accusations launched by the separatists and by the Russian armed forces themselves against the Ukrainian army. Like that of having infiltrated the Rostov region of Russia a group of saboteurs, five of whom were allegedly killed by the Moscow military. Or that of bombing a Russian border post. Both episodes denied by Kiev, which instead denounced the killing of two of its soldiers and the wounding of four others in a separatist bombing. For its part, the self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk claimed that one of its militiamen and a civilian lost their lives in a Ukrainian bombing.
Ukraine has asked for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council, while its Foreign Minister Dmytro Kulebba, in Brussels on the occasion of the meeting of his EU colleagues, had appealed to the Union for adoption “already now. of sanctions “against Moscow, without waiting for the invasion. For now, Kiev and the 27 have only reached an agreement in principle on the creation of an advisory military training mission in Ukraine. But in the meantime, we are preparing for any eventuality: Air France, following the example of Lufthansa and Swiss Air, has decided to cancel the flights to Kiev scheduled for Tuesday, while the Russian authorities have invited commercial companies not to fly over the Sea d’Azov, in the north of the Black Sea, east of the Crimea.
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