Vladimir Putin plans to sign a decree recognising Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine as independent entities, the Kremlin said — a move that German chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned as a “one-sided breach” of the Minsk peace deal.
The Russian president told the leaders of France and Germany that he would recognise the breakaway regions, which were the focus of a conflict between pro-Russian and Ukrainian forces in 2014.
Moscow’s move would narrow the diplomatic options to avoid war, since it is an explicit rejection of a seven-year-old ceasefire mediated by France and Germany, touted as the framework for future negotiations on the wider crisis.
Scholz‘s office said in a statement the German chancellor told Putin during a phone call that his such move would amount to a “one-sided breach” of the Minsk agreements.
The European Union warned of sanctions from the 27-nation bloc should Moscow recognise the regions. “If there is annexation, there will be sanctions, and if there is recognition, I will put the sanctions on the table and the ministers will decide,” the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
Recognition of the rebel-held areas could provide a pretext for Russian troops to cross the border into those areas.
Hours earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron gave hope of a diplomatic solution, saying Putin and Biden had agreed in principle to meet.
But the Kremlin said there were no specific plans for a summit. The White House said Biden had accepted the meeting "in principle" but only "if an invasion hasn't happened".
In Washington, President Joe Biden summoned his top security advisers. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, could be seen entering the White House on the President's Day holiday.
Washington says Russia has massed a force numbering 169,000-190,000 troops in the region, including the pro-Russian rebels in the breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, and could invade within days. The recognition of the rebel-held areas could also provide a pretext for Russian troops to cross the border into those areas.
Russia denies any plan to attack its neighbour but has threatened unspecified "military-technical" action unless it receives sweeping security guarantees, including a promise that Ukraine will never join NATO.
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