Russian President Vladimir Putin convened top officials on Monday to consider recognizing the independence of breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, a move that would increase tensions with the West amid a global crisis. fear that the Kremlin might launch an attack. impending invasion of Ukraine.
The publicly staged, pre-recorded meeting of the presidential Security Council took place between spike in fighting in eastern Ukraine that Western powers believed that Russia could use pretexts to attack Western-looking democracy defied Moscow’s efforts to bring it back into its orbit.
With an estimated 150,000 Russian troops concentrated on three sides of Ukraine, the US warned that Moscow had decided to invade. However, the US and Russian presidents are expected to agree on a possible meeting in a last-ditch effort to avoid war.
If Russia invaded, the meeting would be disrupted, but the prospect of a face-to-face summit has revived hopes that diplomacy could avert a devastating conflict that has resulted in massive casualties and Great economic losses across Europewhich is heavily dependent on Russian energy.
Even as diplomatic efforts move forward, potential flashpoints multiply. Continuous shelling continued on Monday during the protracted conflict in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Moscow-backed separatists. Unusually, Russia has said it resisted an “attack” from Ukraine – something Ukrainian officials deny. And Russia has decided to prolong military exercises in Belarus, which could form the basis for an attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Putin’s decision to consider recognizing the breakaway regions only threatens to add fuel to the fire.
The leaders of the regions had issued televised statements earlier begging Putin to recognize them as independent countries and sign friendship treaties with plans for military aid to protect them from what they describe as an ongoing military offensive by Ukraine. Russia’s lower house of parliament made a similar request last week.
Ukrainian authorities deny launching an attack and accuse Russia of provocation.
The Kremlin initially signaled reluctance to recognize these regions as independent, arguing that would effectively disrupt the 2015 peace agreement for eastern Ukraine that marked a major diplomatic coup for the country. with Moscow, demanding that the Ukrainian authorities grant broad autonomy to the rebel regions.
But during a security meeting on Monday, Putin and other officials argued that Ukrainian authorities had shown no desire to implement the deal.
With the prospect of war looming, French President Emmanuel Macron compete with the broker a meeting between US President Joe Biden and Putin, who denied that he had any plans to attack Ukraine.
Russia has said it only wants the West to ensure that NATO will not allow Ukraine and other former Soviet states to join as members. It has also demanded that the coalition stop deploying weapons to Ukraine and withdraw its forces from Eastern Europe – demands flatly rejected by the West.
Macron’s office said both leaders had “accepted the principle of such a summit”, followed by a broader meeting including “other relevant stakeholders to discuss security”. security and strategic stability in Europe.”
Language from Moscow and Washington was more cautious, but neither side denied a meeting was being discussed.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the administration was always ready to negotiate to prevent war – but was also prepared to respond to any attack.
“So when President Macron asked President Biden yesterday if he was prepared in principle to meet President Putin, if Russia didn’t invade, of course President Biden said yes,” he said. told NBC’s “Today” show on Monday. “But every indication we see on the ground about the deployment of Russian forces is that they are, in fact, preparing for a major attack on Ukraine.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that Putin and Biden could meet if they deem “feasible”, but stressed that “it is too early to talk about concrete plans for a summit meeting.”
Macron’s office said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were preparing to lay the groundwork for a potential summit when they meet on Thursday.
Amidst the hopeful signs, there are also worrisome signs. Starting Thursday, shelling spiked along tense lines of communication split Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of Donbas. More than 14,000 people have been killed since conflict broke out in 2014, shortly after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula.
Ukraine and separatist rebels have been blamed for major ceasefire violations with hundreds of explosions recorded daily. The world is watching the war cautiously for any sign it could spark a larger conflict.
On Friday, separatist officials announced the evacuation of civilians and the mobilization of troops in the face of what they described as an imminent Ukrainian attack on rebel areas. Ukrainian officials have strongly denied any plans to launch such an attack.
While Russian-backed separatists allege that Ukrainian forces are firing on residential areas, Associated Press journalists report from several towns and villages in Ukrainian-held territory along the road. Communications have not witnessed any noticeable escalation from the Ukrainian side and have noted signs of intensified separatist shelling that has destroyed homes and cut roads.
Some residents of the main rebel-held city of Donetsk described sporadic shelling by Ukrainian forces, but they added that it was not on the scale it was earlier in the conflict.
The separatist government on Monday said at least four civilians had been killed by shelling from Ukraine in the past 24 hours and several others were injured. The Ukrainian military said two Ukrainian soldiers were killed over the weekend and another was wounded on Monday.
Ukraine’s military spokesman Pavlo Kovalchyuk said the separatists had “violently opened fire from residential areas using civilians as shields.” He asserted that Ukrainian forces did not return fire.
In the Ukrainian government-controlled village of Novognativka, 60-year-old Ekaterina Evseeva said the shelling was worse than it was at the beginning of the conflict.
“We’re on the verge of a nervous breakdown. And there’s nowhere to run,” she said, her voice trembling.
In another worrisome sign, the Russian military said it had killed five suspected “saboteurs” who crossed from Ukraine into Russia’s Rostov region and also destroyed two armored vehicles. Ukrainian Border Guard spokesman Andriy Demchenko dismissed the claim as “false information”.
Amid growing fears of invasion, the US administration has sent a letter to the UN’s human rights chief claiming that Moscow has drawn up a list of Ukrainians to be killed or sent to. detention camps after the invasion. The letter, first reported by the New York Times, was obtained by the AP.
Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said the claim was a lie and that there was no such list.
Throughout the crisis, Ukraine’s leaders have tried to remain calm – repeatedly eliminating the risk of an invasion.
The European Union’s top diplomat, foreign policy head Josep Borrell, welcomed the prospect of a Biden-Putin summit but said the 27-nation bloc had finalized a package of sanctions to use. if Putin orders an invasion.
The European Union has also agreed to send military officers to Ukraine in an advisory role, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Monday.
