Russian lawmakers on Tuesday gave Russian President Vladimir Putin the go-ahead to deploy troops to the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in eastern Ukraine, heightening fears of a full-scale attack after the Biden administration finally admitted that an invasion by Moscow was underway in the rebel-held areas.
Members of Russia’s upper house, the Federation Council, voted unanimously to allow Putin to send troops outside of the country, rubber-stamping the dispatch of troops and the construction of military bases in the disputed regions, where ongoing fighting since 2014 has killed more than 14,000 people.
Putin ordered so-called “peacekeeping” forces into the region of eastern Ukraine known as Donbas on Monday after recognizing the separatist areas as independent — and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov clarified Tuesday that recognition extends to the entire area, raising the likelihood that Russian troops will attempt to gobble up more territory.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that he believed Russia was still planning a large-scale assault on Ukraine, even as he held out hope for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis.
The Kremlin has recognized the rebel regions’ independence “in borders that existed when they proclaimed” that independence in 2014.
An armored vehicle rolls down a street outside Donetsk on Feb. 22, 2022. AP Photo“Every indication is that Russia is continuing to plan for a full-scale attack of Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told reporters at a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
“We continue to call on Russia to step back … it’s never too late not to attack.”
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell flatly stated that “Russian troops are on Ukrainian soil,” and added that “we consider Donbas part of Ukraine.”
People wave Russian national flags to celebrate recognition of independence in the center of Donetsk. Alexei Alexandrov/AP
Tanks and other military hardware were seen moving through Donetsk overnight. Alexander Ermochenko/REUTERS
A military truck drives down a street outside Donetsk on Feb. 22, 2022. AP PhotoAfter shying away from calling Russia’s actions an invasion, the White House finally used the term to describe the deployment of troops into the two separatist regions.
“An invasion is an invasion and that is what is underway,” deputy White House national security adviser Jon Finer told CNN Tuesday morning, adding, “Russia has been invading Ukraine since 2014 … I am calling it an invasion.”
Elsewhere on another dramatic day in Eastern Europe:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will consider cutting diplomatic relations with Russia amid fears of a full-scale invasion. STR/Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/AFP via Getty Images
Recognization of Ukraine’s rebel areas would allow Russia to deploy troops and set up military bases throughout the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Yuri Kochetkov/EPA
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered forces into the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine on Monday. Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP* The Russian Foreign Ministry said it would evacuate diplomatic personnel from Ukraine, citing threats against them.
* Ukraine said it was considering cutting diplomatic ties with Russia and recalled its ambassador from Moscow.
* Putin said the crisis could be averted if Ukraine recognized Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and forswore its ambition to become a member of NATO.
Ukraine’s military forces sit in the back of a military truck in the Donetsk town of Avdiivka. Aleksey Filippov/AFP via Getty Images
People take part in a shooting training course at a shooting complex outside Lviv. Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP via Getty Images* When asked how far Russian troops could venture into Ukraine, Putin reacted coyly, saying: ” I haven’t said that the troops will go there right now,” adding that it depends how the situation “takes shape on the ground.”
The US and its allies have been bracing for Russia to invade Ukraine for weeks as Putin massed a force of up to 190,000 troops along the Ukraine border while denying any intention of attacking his western neighbor.
The West feared that Russia would manufacture a pretext for invading, and Putin apparently found it as fighting intensified over the weekend between the Russian-backed rebels and Ukrainian military, with each side blaming the other for violating the 2015 Minsk cease-fire agreement.
Following Putin’s decision to send troops into the Donbas, the US and its allies began to impose a series of sanctions, with Biden announcing Tuesday that Moscow would be prohibited from trading its sovereign debt on Western financial markets and two state-linked banks would be punished.
That announcement came one day after the White House issued an executive order barring Americans from conducting “investment, trade, and financing” in the separatist enclaves.
Military trucks move down a street outside Donetsk, the territory controlled by pro-Russian militants, eastern Ukraine, late Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022. AP Photo
People from the Donetsk region board a train to be taken to temporary housing. Roman Yarovitcyn/AP
More military equipment rolled into Donetsk on Feb. 22, 2022. AP PhotoAlso Tuesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suspended the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which would have delivered natural gas from Russia to Germany via a pipeline under the Baltic Sea.
European Union officials approved an initial set of sanctions aimed at the 351 Russian lawmakers who voted for recognizing separatist regions in Ukraine, as well as 27 other Russian officials and institutions from the defense and banking world.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced sanctions against five banks, Russian oligarchs and allies of Putin — and warned that deeper penetration of Ukraine would prompt even more severe penalties.
