Moscow’s recognition of breakaway Ukrainian territories has prompted comparisons with past Russian operations aimed at countering Western influence and bolstering its strategic depth in the former Soviet bloc.
After months of denying plans to invade Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian “peacekeeping” troops into the country’s separatist territories of Donetsk and Luhansk on Tuesday, recognising the two eastern entities – which Russian-backed rebels seized and occupied in 2014 – as republics independent of Kyiv.
