Russian tanks have rolled into eastern Ukraine overnight after Vladimir Putin announced his country was deploying troops “to keep the peace” in the region.
Chilling footage shows a stream of tanks and military hardware heading into the separatist-controlled Makiivka in Donetsk and the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic after Putin issued a decree recognising the breakaway regions on Monday night.
Celebratory fireworks exploded in the sky above Donetsk city centre as Russia appears to be readying for “bloodshed” in a major ramping up of the emerging conflict.
In a further sign of its intentions, Moscow is urgently seeking medics to go to work in makeshift hospitals in Rostov, close to the republics.
Speaking anonymously, one doctor said: “Today we have been offered to go work at a temporary hospital in Rostov.
“This is how they said it: ‘The salary will be high, your patients will be the wounded’.”
Today the Ukrainian military said two soldiers have been killed and 12 wounded in shelling by pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine in the past 24 hours, the most casualties this year, as ceasefire violations increase.
The military said on its Facebook page it had recorded 84 cases of shelling by separatists who it said had opened fire on about 40 settlements along the front line using heavy artillery.
In his televised address last night Putin said: “We demand that those who have seized and are retaining power in Kyiv immediately halt all hostilities.
“Otherwise, the Ukrainian ruling regime will be wholly and entirely responsible for the possible continuation of the bloodshed."
The move is set to see the West hit back with sanctions while the UN's political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo warned that the risk of a "major conflict" was real and that it needed to be prevented.
A senior US official said the deployment to breakaway enclaves already controlled by separatists loyal to Moscow did not yet constitute a "further invasion" that would trigger the harshest sanctions, but that a wider military campaign could come at any time.
There was no word on the size of the force Putin was dispatching, but the decree said Russia now had the right to build military bases in the breakaway regions.
In a lengthy televised address packed with grievances against the West, a visibly angry Putin described Ukraine as an integral part of Russia's history and said the east of the country was ancient Russian lands.
Russian state television showed Putin, joined by Russia-backed separatist leaders, signing a decree recognising the independence of the two Ukrainian breakaway regions - the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic - along with agreements on cooperation and friendship.
The Russian president's recognition of the two breakaway regions as independent and his order to send in troops has upped the ante with the West over Ukraine.
But a US official told Reuters that sending Russian troops into the separatist regions was not a departure from what Russia had done already, which was why it did not trigger the broader sanctions.
"This isn't a further invasion since it's territory that they've already occupied," that official said.
The official said sending Russian troops into the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine was not new.
"Russian troops moving into Donbas would not itself be a new step. Russia has had forces in the Donbas region for the past eight years... They are currently now making decisions to do this in a more overt and ... open way," he said.
The United States will continue to pursue diplomatic talks until or unless an invasion occurs, he said.
He stated: "Russia continues to escalate this crisis that it created in the first place. We'll continue to pursue diplomacy until the tanks roll, but we are under no illusions about what is likely to come next."
Boris Johnson will chair a Cobra meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss the UK's reaction to the Ukraine crisis and put in place "significant" sanctions for Russia, Downing Street has said.
The meeting, which is scheduled to take place at 6.30am, will be used to "coordinate the UK response", including agreeing a "significant package of sanctions to be introduced immediately", according to a No 10 spokesperson.
Despite triumphalism in the state media, business newspaper Vedomosti warned of a “disaster” for the Russian stock exchange resulting from Putin’s decision.
Another paper Kommersant highlighted “money being withdrawn from Russian borders” due to the recognition of the Donbas republics.
