THE RUSSIAN Security Council discussed yesterday recognising Donetsk and Lugansk in the Donbass region of Ukraine as independent states.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said: ‘I have heard your opinions and I will make a decision over recognition of Lugansk and Donetsk.
‘During the coup in 2014 part of the population of Ukraine did not accept this coup. It concerned people who live in Crimea and in the Donbass area. These people said they were going to establish two Republics – The Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic.’
Valentina Matviyenko Chairwoman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly told the Russian Security Council: ‘We gave Ukraine many chances to follow the Minsk Agreement, obviously they do not want to do that.
‘We cannot delay this decision, we have to now recognise the People’s Republic of Lugansk and the People’s Republic of Donetsk.
‘The people of Lugansk and Donetsk are hostages to this anti-Russian project and if recognition will solve this problem that is the step we have to make.’
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: ‘I really hope that we will send a really strong message to the Russian world.
‘We can no longer let these people be humiliated.
‘I can see no other way but to recognise.’
Sergey Ivanov: Minister of Defence, said: ‘We knew that the day would come when Ukraine would gather up the strength and resolve this by force.
‘The next stage is that they (the West) are pumping the Ukraine up with weapons.
‘Every day they receive four or even five flights of the most sophisticated weapons.
‘Yes we must recognise.’
The Security Council meeting came after the leaders of Ukraine’s two self-declared republics appealed to Moscow to recognise the separatist regions as independent states.
Speaking yesterday on the Russia-24 TV channel, head of the self-declared Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), Leonid Pasechnik, appealed to Putin, insisting that Moscow’s affirmation of their sovereignty would help avoid mass deaths of local residents, of which 300,000 are said to be ethnic Russians.
Pasechnik said: ‘I ask you to recognise the sovereignty and independence of the Lugansk People’s Republic. I also ask you to consider the possibility of concluding a friendship and cooperation agreement between the LPR and the Russian Federation.’
In a simultaneous appeal, the leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, also called on the Russian president to recognise his region’s independence.
Both declared their autonomy from Kiev in the wake of the 2014 Maidan right-wing coup, which saw Ukraine’s government toppled in the wake of violent unrest.
According to Pushilin, the Russian leader’s ‘political decisions, such as the recognition of documents issued to residents of our republics and the possibility to become Russian citizens, are invaluable for us.
‘On behalf of all the people of the Donetsk People’s Republic we ask you to recognise the Donetsk People’s Republic as an independent, democratic, legal, social state.’
- Five Ukrainian officers were killed attempting to cross the border into Russia yesterday.
Russia’s armed forces reported that its troops opened fire on a ‘Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group’ that attempted to cross into the country, killing five servicemen and destroying their vehicles.
In a statement issued yesterday, military chiefs said that ‘a unit of the Southern Military District, alongside a border patrol by the Russian Federal Security Service, prevented a sabotage and reconnaissance group from violating the Russian state border from the territory of Ukraine.’
