Russian tanks rolled into eastern Ukraine overnight Tuesday ostensibly on a peace-keeping mission and to protect two breakaway republics that Moscow fashioned eight years ago and is now formally recognizing as independent states.
But following a 56-minute bellicose speech, in which the Russian leader denied the very existence of a country called Ukraine, few in Kyiv harbor any doubts that the armored columns will sooner or later punch beyond Ukraine’s Donbas region with Putin’s decision to recognize the independence of the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk being seen as a prelude for likely more widespread military action.
In the friendship treaties Putin signed with Moscow’s breakaway republics, he committed to defending their borders.
Kremlin officials Tuesday declined to be pinned down on where the borders of the breakaway republics start and finish — whether their territory includes all of the oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk or just the territory currently militarily occupied by the self-declared republics, which is about just under half of the Donbas region.
Asked by reporters in Moscow, Dmitry Pskov, the Kremlin spokesman, avoided clarification, and when asked whether the port city of Mariupol, currently held by Ukrainian forces, is considered as part of the new republics, he said: “I have nothing to add.”
Western diplomats and residents in Donetsk confirmed the appearance of Russian tanks overnight Tuesday.
As the months-long geopolitical standoff over Ukraine shifts into a new even more ominous gear, Western countries joined in a chorus of condemnation, and more foreign governments ordered diplomats to leave Kyiv and to relocate to Lviv in western Ukraine, a short drive from the Polish border, a reflection of their growing worries that it won’t be long before Russian forces deployed on Ukrainian borders may soon be ordered to target the Ukrainian capital.
Australia became the latest country to relocate its mission, joining the United States, Britain and others to shift their ambassadors and their staff closer to the safety of neighboring Poland.
War unfolding?
Western intelligence officials also fear the recognition of the breakaway republics is just part of a bigger war plan that’s now unfolding according to a playbook written weeks ago. They say that around two-thirds of the Russian forces amassed near Ukraine are now within 50 kilometers of the borders, are in battle formation and poised to commence military operations, although it is not clear if approval has yet been given by the Kremlin to launch a full-scale offensive.
Speaking in a televised, nationwide address after 2am local time, several hours after it was scheduled, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy strove to reassure Ukrainians saying the country is well-protected, and he added Ukraine reserves the right to defend itself from further Russian aggression.
“We are on our land, we are not afraid of anyone or anything,” Zelenskiyy declared.
A somber but defiant Zelenskiyy urged international monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, who have been observing an oft-broken ceasefire in eastern Ukraine struck in 2015 and brokered by France and Germany, to continue their work to help prevent provocations and further escalation.
The Ukrainian President also said he had called for an urgent meeting of the Normandy Format countries – Germany, France, Ukraine, and Russia — for talks on this latest move by Moscow in the Donbas, and he appealed to Western countries to stand by Ukraine. “It is very important now to see who is our real friend and partner, and who will continue ‘scaring’ the Russian Federation just with words,” Zelenskiyy said.
On Saturday in a speech at the Munich Security Conference, the Ukrainian leader chided Western powers for not doing much more to deter Russia from aggression.
In London, Britain’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, called a meeting Tuesday of his top security and intelligence officials to consider Britain’s response. The British foreign secretary Liz Truss tweeted that Britain would soon be “announcing new sanctions on Russia in response to their breach of international law and attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
British officials said on in a phone call with Ukraine’s president, Johnson had told Zelenskiyy “he would explore sending further defensive support to Ukraine, at the request of the Ukrainian government.”
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