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Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė has said Russian president Vladimir Putin’s move to recognise two separatist pro-Moscow regions in Ukraine puts “Kafka & Orwell to shame”.
Putin just put Kafka & Orwell to shame: no limits to dictator’s imagination, no lows too low, no lies too blatant, no red lines too red to cross.
What we witnessed tonight might seem surreal for democratic world. But the way we respond will define us for the generations to come.”
Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis also tweeted that Russia’s recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk “proves a total contempt for international law & UN charters.”
He added that Russia “must be recognised for what it is: a state outside international rules & civilised norms,” and he called for other nations to respond with sanctions.
Putin just put Kafka & Orwell to shame: no limits to dictator's imagination, no lows too low, no lies too blatant, no red lines too red to cross.
— Ingrida Šimonytė (@IngridaSimonyte) February 21, 2022
What we witnessed tonight might seem surreal for democratic world. But the way we respond will define us for the generations to come.
Updated
US and allies to announce new sanctions against Russia on Tuesday
The United States is coordinating with allies and will announce new sanctions against Russia on Tuesday, according to a Reuters report citing US officials late on Monday.
The initial sanctions are reportedly in response to Moscow recognising the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine as independent and sending “peacekeeping” forces there.
However it’s unclear how significant the sanctions will be. The US earlier said it would not be imposing a broader sanctions package on Russia as its actions on Monday had not constituted a further invasions.
US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, speaking after a UN security council meeting on Monday evening, said:
Tomorrow, the United States will impose sanctions on Russia for this clear violation of international law and Ukraine sovereignty and territorial integrity.
We can, will, and must stand united in our calls for Russia to withdraw its forces, return to the diplomatic table and work toward peace.”
Earlier on Monday, Joe Biden signed an executive order to prohibit trade and investment between US individuals and the two breakaway regions that Russia had recognised as independent.
Earlier we reported Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy gave a televised address in the early hours of the morning, saying Ukraine is “not afraid of anyone or anything” after Russian president Vladimir Putin recognised separatist regions of eastern Ukraine as independent and then ordered in forces.
“Ukraine most certainly considers these last Russian actions as the violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country,” he said. “All responsibility for all the consequences connected with the decision mentioned above lies on the Russian political leadership”.
Watch the highlights from his address in the video below.
United Nations security council summary
After a tense 90 minutes, the United Nations security council meeting has come to an end.
It was an extraordinary war of words as representatives from the United States, the UK, France, Germany, India, Ireland, the UAE, Kenya and Ghana all emphatically urged peace and diplomacy in a bid to avert war in Ukraine.
Addressing the session, US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield cast doubt on Putin’s assertion that the Russian troops would take on a “peacekeeping” role in the Donetsk and Lugansk areas.
He calls them peacekeepers. This is nonsense. We know what they really are.
Referring to Putin’s recent allegations, the ambassador said his words amounted to a “series of outrageous, false claims” that were aimed at “creating a pretext for war.”
Putin wants to travel back to a time when empires ruled the world. This is not 1919,” she added.
The UK’s permanent representative to the UN, Dame Barbara Woodward, highlighted the humanitarian impact of a possible invasion.
The actions Russia has chosen today will have severe and far-reaching consequences. First, to human life. An invasion of Ukraine unleashes the forces of war, death and destruction on the people of Ukraine,” she said.
In seeking to redraw borders by force, Russia’s actions show blatant contempt for international law.”
After about an hour we finally heard from Russia ,with Vasily Nebenzya calling the prior statements a “direct verbal assault” and saying they would go “unanswered”.
Nebenzya also attacked the west for “nudging” Ukraine towards conflict and accused other nations of overlooking the plight of those in the Donbas.
Most of you did not find any place for the nearly four million residents of Donbas ... Our western colleagues have been unashamedly cramming weapons into Ukraine.”
Russia then alleged Ukraine was on the brink of “military adventure”.
Allowing a new bloodbath in the Donbas is something we do not intend to do.”
Finally, Ukraine’s ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya took the stand, insisting that his country’s borders remain “unchangeable” despite Russia’s actions.
We are on our own land. We are not afraid of anything or anyone, we owe nothing to anyone and we will not give away anything to anyone. There should be no doubt whatsoever.
The international borders of Ukraine are and will remain unchangeable.
We demand from Russia to cancel the decision on recognition and return to the table of negotiations.
We condemn the order to deploy additional Russian occupation troops to the territories in Ukraine.
We demand immediate and complete verifiable withdrawal of the occupation troops.
The United Nations is sick. That’s a matter of fact. It has been hit by the virus spread by the Kremlin. Will it succumb to this virus?”
Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega has controversially defended Russia’s stance over Ukraine, saying president Putin was right to recognise two regions controlled by Moscow-backed separatists as independent, Reuters reports.
Ortego, a long-time opponent of US influence in Central America, defended Putin’s move to recognise the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk during a speech in Managua.
“I am sure that if they do a referendum like the one carried out in Crimea, people will vote to annex the territories to Russia.”
Ortega also said Ukraine’s attempt to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) represented a threat to Russia.
If Ukraine gets into Nato they will be saying to Russia let’s go to war, and that explains why Russia is acting like this. Russia is simply defending itself.”
The selloff on Asian stock markets has deepened – and the rush to safe havens has accelearted – in the past hour so as investors become more and more jittery about the Ukraine crisis.
The Nikkei is now off 2.3%, the ASX in Sydney has slumped 1.6%, and the Kospi in Seoul has retreated 1.75%. Bitcoin is down 6% at $36,633.
Markets are also down heavily in China but the situation there has been complicated after tech stocks were hammered in the wake of news that state-owned firms and banks have been to told to start a fresh round of checks on their financial exposure and other links to Ant Group, which is owned by Jack Ma’s Alibaba.
The Hang Seng has been worst hit, down 3.2%, while Shanghai is off 1.25%.
Hong Kong markets needs that lunch break ASAP. Hang Seng Index off over 700 pts (-3%). Erbody down except oil names. Tech stocks through the floor. pic.twitter.com/J6IzHWzNTj
— David Ingles (@DavidInglesTV) February 22, 2022
In contrast, Brent crude oil rose 2% to $97.21, touching a new seven-year high on worries Russia’s energy exports could get disrupted, and spot gold hit a new six-month top of $1,911.56.
Ukraine has responded.
“It is with unease that I will now remove my mask”, Sergiy Kyslytsya says in his address, not because of Covid but because of “the virus that has hit the UN - the virus that is spread by the Kremlin.”
Kyslytsya adds:
We are on our own land. We are not afraid of anything or anyone, we owe nothing to anyone and we will not give away anything to anyone. There should be no doubt whatsoever.
The international borders of Ukraine are and will remain unchangeable.
We demand from Russia to cancel the decision on recognition and return to the table of negotiations.
We condemn the order to deploy additional Russian occupation troops to the territories in Ukraine.
We demand immediate and complete verifiable withdrawal of the occupation troops.
The United Nations is sick. That’s a matter of fact. It has been hit by the virus spread by the Kremlin. Will it succumb to this virus?”
Kyslytsya: "We demand immediate and complete very verifiable withdrawal of the occupation troops...The United Nations is sick. That's a matter of fact. It has been hit by the virus spread by the Kremlin. Will it succumb to this virus?"
— Julian Borger (@julianborger) February 22, 2022
Updated
Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations has responded to the string of emphatic pleas from world leaders and delegates at the security council meeting to de-escalate conflict in Ukraine.
“I’ll leave the direct verbal assault on us unanswered,” Vasily Nebenzya told the meeting in New York.
Nebenzya pointedly blamed Ukraine for sabotaging the Minsk agreements by not speaking to the Moscow-backed separatists in the east.
Ukraine has been in conflict with pro-Russian breakaway rebels in eastern Ukraine since 2014. The Minsk accords were thrashed out in 2015 to end hostilities.
Nebenzya also attacked the west for “nudging” Ukraine towards conflict and accused other nations of overlooking the plight of those in the Donbas.
Most of you did not find any place for the nearly four million residents of Donbas ... Our western colleagues have been unashamedly cramming weapons into Ukraine.”
Russia alleged Ukraine was on the brink of “military adventure”.
Allowing a new bloodbath in the Donbas is something we do not intend to do.”
Updated
China has given a very short address to the security council meeting.
“All parties concerned must exercise restraint and avoid any action that may fuel tensions” and “seek reasonable solutions to each other’s concerns,” Zhang Yun said.
He added that Beijing welcomed and encouraged “every effort for a diplomatic solution”.
Updated
Kenya has delivered an emphatic plea to Russia to pursue diplomacy and not conflict.
Martin Kimani said:
We meet tonight on the brink of a major conflict. … diplomacy is failing … territorial integrity of Ukraine stands breached... Multilateralism lies on its deathbed tonight.
Ghana’s representative to the UN, Harold Agyeman, says his country “deeply regrets the decision of the Russian Federation to turn its back on the Minsk agreements” and reiterated that Ghana “supports the internationally recognised borders of Ukraine”.
Kenya makes strong statement opposing the undermining of the sovereignty & territorial integrity of #Ukraine during the emergency meeting of the #SecurityCouncil at 9pm on 21st February. See full statement delivered below 👇🏿 pic.twitter.com/3S36UNW7OE
— Permanent Mission of Kenya to the UN 🇰🇪 🇺🇳 (@KenyaMissionUN) February 22, 2022
Updated
Japan has joined the growing list of countries to publicly condemn Russia’s recognition of two breakaway regions in Ukraine as independent and its decree to build military bases there, a senior government spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“These actions violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, violate international law and are utterly unacceptable,” said chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno.
He said Japan is monitoring the development with serious concern and will take actions depending on the actual situation, including deploying sanctions.
India has called for “restraint on all sides” even after entry of Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, urging for all sides to help maintain peace and security.
The UAE similarly called for restraint, avoidance of civilian casualties and a return to the Minsk agreements.
Updated
Ireland’s UN representative, Geraldine Nason, says Ireland’s support to Ukraine is “unwavering”.
“Ukraine has the same fundamental right as every other foreign state,” she says while calling Russia’s recent actions a “flagrant violation of international law”.
Nason commended Ukraine for its restraint and said Russia’s continued actions serve to “further raise tensions”.
Updated
The UK’s permanent representative to the UN, Dame Barbara Woodward, is now addressing her colleagues, highlighting the humanitarian impact of a possible invasion.
Putin’s order to deploy troops into Ukraine “will have severe and far-reaching consequences,” Woodward said, warning of the dire consequences of war, death and destruction on the people of Ukraine.
Russia’s actions “make a mockery” of the commitments it previously made to the Minsk agreements and is a “blatant contempt to international law”, she added.
The actions Russia has chosen today will have severe and far-reaching consequences. First, to human life. An invasion of Ukraine unleashes the forces of war, death and destruction on the people of Ukraine.
In seeking to redraw borders by force, Russia’s actions show blatant contempt for international law.
Russia has brought us to the brink. We urge Russia to step back.”
Updated
Thomas-Greenfield has just wrapped up her address.
Putin wants to travel back to a time when empires ruled the world. This is not 1919.”
President Putin asserted that Russia today has a rightful claim to all territories, all territories from the Russian Empire, the same Russian empire from before the Soviet Union from over 100 years ago ...
In essence, Putin wants the world to travel back in time, to time before the United Nations, to a time when empires ruled the world. But the rest of the world has moved forward.
It is not 1919. It is 2022. The United Nations was founded on the principle of decolonisation, not recolonisation, and we believe the vast majority of UN member states and the UN Security Council are committed to moving forward not going back in time.”
The US ambassador to the UN said the consequences of Russia’s actions will be dire across Ukraine, Europe and the globe.
“President Putin has torn the Minsk Agreement to shreds. We have been clear that we do not believe he will stop at that,” said Thomas-Greenfield, referring to the agreements of 2014 and 2015 that aimed to end conflict between the Ukrainian army and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Updated
US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield is now addressing the meeting.
Referring to Putin’s order of troops into eastern Ukraine on “peacekeeping duties”, she said:
This is nonsense. We know what they really are.”
Thomas-Greenfield said Russian recognition of regions in eastern Ukraine is “clearly the basis for Russia’s attempt to create a pretext for a further invasion of Ukraine”.
“No one can stand on the sidelines,” she added while calling Russia’s actions a violation of the basic principle of international law.
Updated
Rosemary DiCarlo, United Nations under-secretary-general, is addressing the UN security council emergency meeting.
DiCarlo said she was “deeply concerned” regarding recent developments, citing 3,331 ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine over recent days and urged for more negotiations.
DiCarlo has urged the key players to work towards a diplomatic solution to the crisis, describing the the next hours and days as “critical”.
Updated
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has issued a statement following Russia’s recognition of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk region as independent.
This step is a breach of international law and fundamental OSCE principles and runs counter to the Minsk agreements.
As all OSCE participating States, Russia has undertaken commitments to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of others. We call on Russia to immediately rescind this decision.
The recognition will only fuel further tensions and will separate the populations living in these regions from the rest of their country, Ukraine.
The UN security council emergency meeting is just about to get underway.
After some behind-the-scenes arguments, the meeting will be an open briefing.
Stand by for the latest developments. You can follow at this livestream
Updated
US secretary of state Antony Blinken says US personnel will regularly return to continue their diplomatic work in Ukraine and provide emergency consular services, Reuters is reporting.
All US state department personnel are now out of Ukraine having relocated to a hotel in Poland, US secretary of state Antony Blinken has annoucened.
Earlier in the evening, the Biden administration ordered all remaining state department personnel out of Ukraine and to Poland after the embassy previously relocated from Kyiv to the western city of Lviv.
Our colleagues who recently relocated to Lviv will spend the night in Poland. They will regularly return to continue their diplomatic work in Ukraine and provide emergency consular services.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) February 22, 2022
Updated
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said he will meet with US secretary of state Antony Blinken in Washington over the deepening crisis in Ukraine after the pair spoke again.
“Taking into account the dynamics of the situation, I had another call with Secretary Blinken ahead of our tomorrow’s meeting in Washington, DC,” he wrote on Twitter.
Taking into account the dynamics of the situation, I had another call with @SecBlinken ahead of our tomorrow’s meeting in Washington, DC. Key topic: sanctions. I underscored the need to impose tough sanctions on Russia in response to its illegal actions.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 22, 2022
Updated
US to continue to pursue diplomacy with Russia until 'tanks roll', official says
Russian president Vladimir Putin’s decision to send troops he called “peacemakers” into breakaway regions of Ukraine has not as yet constituted a further invasion that would trigger a broader sanctions package, a Biden administration official told Reuters.
The United States will continue to pursue diplomacy with Russia until “tanks roll,” another official said.
Putin’s recognition of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine as independent and his order to send in troops was met with widespread condemnation from the west.
However, one administration official told Reuters sending Russian troops into the separatist regions was not a departure from what Russia had done already, which was why it did not trigger broader sanctions.
Speaking to reporters on a conference call, the official said:
This isn’t a further invasion since it’s territory that they’ve already occupied.
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.
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.”
Updated
China’s embassy in Ukraine has told its citizens and companies to refrain from travelling to “areas where the situation remains uncertain”, the Guardian’s Vincent Ni reports.
The embassy also advised Ukraine-based Chinese citizens to stock up on daily necessities such as food and drinking water.
In the short warning posted on the Chinese embassy in Kyiv’s website and its Wechat account, the embassy did not mention the latest development. Rather, it said the situation in eastern Ukraine “has had significant changes”.
The rare warning comes as Russia recognised the Russian-controlled territories in southeast Ukraine as independent states.
Stock markets in Asia Pacific are seeing big losses as the trading day picks up speed on Tuesday against a backdrop of looming conflict in Ukraine.
The Nikkei has dropped nearly 2% in Tokyo, the Kospi is down 1.36% in Seoul and Sydney is off by 1%.
Gold, on the other hand, is up again as investors seek its safe haven quality. It rose 0.2% at $1,909.54 per ounce. Brent crude oil is up 1.7% at $97.09 a barrel.
Zelenskiy rules out making any territorial concessions, calls for peace
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy gave a televised address in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Ukraine time, ruling out any territorial concessions and calling for peace.
Zelenskiy’s remarks followed a tumultuous day in which Russia appeared to be moving closer to an invasion, with Vladimir Putin recognising two Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine as independent and ordering forces to the region.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine was committed to peace and diplomacy while describing the actions of the Russian federation as a violation of Ukraine’s integrity and sovereignty.
President Zelensky addressed Ukrainians after 2am local time. “We are not afraid. We won’t cede anything.” He said Putin withdrew from Minsk Agreements by ordering troops into Ukraine officially. He called for emergency meetings of OSCE, Normandy Format, UNSC. pic.twitter.com/rnValxmLx8
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) February 22, 2022
The Kyiv Independent news outlet reports Zelenskiy as saying:
We are dedicated to the peaceful and diplomatic path. We are on our land. We are not afraid of anything and anyone, we don’t owe anything to anyone, we will not concede anything to anyone.
It’s not February 2014, but February 2022. It’s a different country. There’s a different army. There’s a single goal: peace.
He added Ukraine is expecting “clear and effective” steps from its allies to act against Russia while calling for an emergency summit of the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France.
Zelenskiy also accused Russia of wrecking peace talks and ruled out making any territorial concessions, Reuters reports.
The United Nations security council has scheduled an emergency meeting for Monday night and the US has moved to impose sanctions against Russia.
Updated
Ukraine’s request for an emergency meeting of the United Nations security council is set to go ahead for 9pm EST.
Washington Post reporter John Hudson has shared a copy of Ukraine’s formal request for the meeting.
In it, it condemn’s Russia for threatening “international peace and security.”
Posting a copy here of Ukraine's formal request for the meeting. It condemn's Russia for threatening "international peace and security." Awkwardly, it had to be addressed to Russia's ambassador to the UN because Moscow holds the UN Security Council presidency. pic.twitter.com/06rFoxr7Nu
— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) February 22, 2022
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has just confirmed Britain will enforce “severe sanctions” upon Russia in the face of any illegal action after speaking with his British counterpart, UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss.
Focused call with my British counterpart @trussliz. Russia’s illegal action will be met with severe sanctions by the UK. London and Kyiv keep coordinating their actions closely with regard to all possible scenarios.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 22, 2022
Russia acquires the right to build military bases in eastern Ukraine
Russia has acquired the right to build military bases in Ukraine’s two breakaway regions under treaties signed by President Vladimir Putin with their separatist leaders, Reuters is reporting.
Putin on Monday officially recognised the two breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. He later announced he was ordering troops to the region on a “peacekeeping mission”, defying western warnings that such a step would be illegal and kill peace negotiations.
Under the two identical friendship treaties, submitted by Putin for ratification by parliament, Russia has the right to build bases in the separatist regions and they, on paper, can do the same in Russia.
The parties commit to defend each other and sign separate agreements on military cooperation and on recognition of each other’s borders.
The 31-point treaties also say Russia and the breakaway statelets will work to integrate their economies.
Updated
Here is the moment Putin signed a cooperation agreement with the separatist republics of Luhansk and Donetsk at the Kremlin on Monday, recognising the independence of the two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.
US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, says she supports Ukraine’s call for an urgent meeting of the UN security council.
We must all stand with Ukraine in the face of Russia’s brazen attempt to usurp Ukraine’s sovereign territory.
There can be no fence-sitters in this crisis.”
We support Ukraine’s call for an urgent meeting of the @UN Security Council. We must all stand with Ukraine in the face of Russia’s brazen attempt to usurp Ukraine’s sovereign territory. There can be no fence-sitters in this crisis. https://t.co/SI81WBLkmZ
— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) February 21, 2022
Updated
US Congressman Gerry Connolly says the ordering of Russian troops into Ukraine is not a “peacekeeping” operation.
Connolly told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer:
This is not a peacekeeping operation, and we need to stop enabling Putin with even the use of that word.
These are units of the Russian military who are using the pretext of the independence of Russian-occupied sovereign territory of Ukraine to further that occupation and to expand it.
Right now, Russia’s surrogates and Russian troops occupy about a third of Donetsk to Luhansk. What he proposes to do immediately is to extend that to the remaining two-thirds. That is an invasion by any sense of the imagination.
"This is not a peacekeeping operation and we need to stop enabling Putin with even the use of that word." - @GerryConnolly talks with @wolfblitzer after Putin orders Russian troops into two separatist regions of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/a5cP9HuKXr
— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) February 21, 2022
Here’s a quick recap of Zelenskiy’s televised address to the nation, held during the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Ukraine’s president accused Russia of wrecking peace talks and has ruled out making any territorial concessions, Reuters reports.
Zelenskiy added Ukraine was committed to peace and diplomacy after Russia formally recognised two Russian-backed separatist regions as independent on Monday evening.
The president said Ukraine was expecting “clear and effective” steps from its allies to act against Russia and called for an emergency summit of the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France.
Updated
Zelenskiy says “we are not afraid” after Russia officially recognised two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine as independent, Reuters reports.
Zelenskiy says he expects “clear support” from the west.
We don’t owe anyone anything and we won’t give anyone anything.”
Updated
Ukraine’s president Zelenskiy says Ukraine is a supporter of a political and diplomatic settlement, Reuters reports.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba says he spoke to the European Union’s Josep Borrell and was assured that the EU’s response would be decisive and united.
Kuleba added that Ukraine shared the assessment by western leaders that Russia’s decision to move troops into the Donbas was illegal.
Updated
We also have an update on the upcoming UN security council emergency session.
After some behind-the-scenes arguments, the UN security council is now going to be an open briefing, Guardian reporter Julian Borger tell us.
As Zelenskiy calls for peace, unusually large columns of military vehicles and hardware are moving through Donetsk, the largest city of the self-proclaimed republic in eastern Ukraine, Reuters is reporting.
A Reuters witness said they saw columns of military vehicles including tanks in the early hours of Tuesday on the outskirts of Donetsk, the capital of one of the breakaway east Ukraine regions.
It comes shortly after Putin ordered his military to enter the Russian-controlled areas of southeast Ukraine following a decision to recognise the territories as independent states.
Updated
Zelenskiy calls for peace, describes Russia's actions as violation in televised address
Ukraine’s president Zelenskiy is currently hosting a televised address, calling for peace in the region while describing the actions of the Russian federation as a violation of Ukraine’s integrity and sovereignty.
Zelenskiy says he is waiting for clear and effective steps of support from our partners.
Updated
Russian president Vladimir Putin’s move to recognise breakaway eastern Ukrainian territories as independent appears to be the opening salvo of a larger potential military operation targeting Ukraine, nearly a dozen US and western officials have told CNN.
“This is Potemkin politics,” a senior administration official told reporters on Monday, using a phrase meaning a move to hide a weakness. “President Putin is accelerating the very conflict that he’s created.”
The US expects Russian troops could move into the Donbas region of Ukraine as soon as Monday evening or Tuesday, after Putin recognised the two pro-Moscow territories as independent, a senior US official familiar with latest intelligence told the network.
Updated
UN security council to hold emergency session on Monday evening EST
There will be an emergency session of the UN security council at 9pm EST in New York on Monday evening EST, it has been confirmed.
Russia, the current council chair, announced that it will be a meeting behind doors.
The US, UK, France, Ireland, Norway and others are pushing for it to be public.
Updated
US secretary of state Antony Blinken says a “swift and firm response” to the Kremlin’s recognition of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics as independent requires a “swift and firm” response.
“We will take appropriate steps in coordination with partners,” Blinken added.
Kremlin recognition of the so-called “Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics” as “independent” requires a swift and firm response, and we will take appropriate steps in coordination with partners.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) February 21, 2022
British prime minister Boris Johnson is set to chair a meeting of the UK’s emergency committee Cobra on Tuesday morning to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine, Downing Street said.
The meeting, which is scheduled to take place at 6.30am GMT, 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 who spoke to PA Media.
It comes after foreign secretary Liz Truss said the UK will announce new sanctions against Russia on Tuesday “in response to their breach of international law and attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
A No 10 spokesperson said:
The Prime Minister will chair a COBR at 0630 tomorrow morning to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine and to coordinate the UK response including agreeing a significant package of sanctions to be introduced immediately.
US president Joe Biden has signed an executive order to prohibit trade and investment between US individuals and the two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine recognised as independent by Russia on Monday, the White House said in a statement late on Monday.
The declaration by Russian president Vladimir Putin “contradicts Russia’s commitments under the Minsk agreements”, “refutes Russia’s claimed commitment to diplomacy” and “undermines Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” the statement reads.
Economic measures include the prohibition of “new investment” by an American, wherever located, and the “importation into the United States, directly or indirectly, of any goods, services, or technology from the covered regions”.
The executive order also prohibits:
- New investment in the so-called DNR or LNR regions of Ukraine by American, wherever located;
- The importation into the United States, directly or indirectly, of any goods, services, or technology from the so-called DNR or LNR regions of Ukraine;
- The exportation, reexportation, sale, or supply, directly or indirectly, from the United States, or by aa American, wherever located, of any goods, services, or technology to the so-called DNR or LNR regions of Ukraine;
- And any approval, financing, facilitation, or guarantee by an American, wherever located, of a transaction by a foreign person where the transaction by that foreign person would be covered by these prohibitions if performed by an American or within the United States.
Earlier we reported that Vladimir Putin ordered his military to enter the Russian-controlled areas of south-east Ukraine following a decision to recognise the territories as independent states.
We now have video released by Ukraine appearing to show a column of military vehicles with their headlights on moving in convoy along a road. The officials said it was not possible to tell if the troops belonged to the regular Russian army, or were from Russian-controlled separatist units.
People evacuated from Donbas arrived in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, today as hundreds poured out of railway stations after leaders of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics announced a mass evacuation of civilians to Russia.
Evidence suggests that the sudden evacuations of the Russian-controlled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions were planned and are likely to have been designed to set the stage for a formal Russian intervention, writes the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth from Russia’s frontier with Ukraine.
Australia’s prime minster Scott Morrison says the suggestion that Russian troops in Ukraine’s breakaway regions are peacekeeping is “nonsense”, according to a Reuters report.
The UN security council is set to meet publicly on Ukraine in a matter of hours with a meeting scheduled for 9pm EST on Monday, Reuters reports citing a Russian diplomat.
Updated
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says he is was “urgently” preparing an address in the early hours of Tuesday on Russia’s recognition of Russian-backed separatist regions as independent, Reuters reports.
Updated
Canada has condemned Russia’s decision to recognise two eastern Ukrainian regions controlled by separatists as independent and will impose sanctions in response, foreign minister Melanie Joly said on Monday, according to a Reuters report.
Ukraine calls for emergency security council meeting
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has asked the UN security council for an urgent meeting.
“Ukraine has requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council due to Russia’s illegal actions. We have already sent the request to the Council,” Kuleba tweeted in the early hours of Tuesday morning local time.
Ukraine has requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council due to Russia’s illegal actions. We have already sent the request to the Council.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 21, 2022
Hello it’s Samantha Lock with you as my colleague Lauren Aratani signs off.
The Biden administration has ordered all remaining state department personnel out of Ukraine and to Poland, according to Bloomberg’s White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs.
The embassy had previously relocated from Kyiv to the western city of Lviv.
BREAKING: The Biden admin has ordered all remaining State Department personnel out of Ukraine. The embassy had previously relocated from Kyiv to the western city of Lviv. Now they are shifting to Poland.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) February 21, 2022
Updated
Summary
Here’s a quick summary of what happened today:
- Vladimir Putin recognised the independence of two breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine, Luhansk and Donetsk. Multiple leaders have condemned the recognition and called it a violation of the Minsk peace deal that was signed in 2015. He ordered troops into the territories for what is being called “peacekeeping duties”.
- In response to Russia’s recognition of independence for the two territories in eastern Ukraine, leaders in the US and UK have promised retaliation. UK officials said they will announce details of sanctions against Russia tomorrow morning, while US leaders have said limited sanctions will be likely.
- In a televised address lasting an hour, Putin gave an exhaustive rant on the state of Ukraine, telling the Russian public that Ukraine has nuclear weapons and is being heavily influenced by the West.
- Ukraine has rejected as “fake news” a claim from the Russian army that it killed five “saboteurs” attempting to cross the border in the Russian region of Rostov. Ukrainian officials said not a single soldier had been killed and their forces were not present in the Rostov region.
- The Russian president was speaking at an impromptu meeting of Russia’s national security council, where top officials lined up to echo nationalist talking points, such as the baseless claims of genocide in eastern Ukraine and drawing parallels with Russia’s 2008 war with Georgia. The meeting was broadcast on Russian state television: Putin said it was “happening spontaneously, because I wanted to hear your opinions without any preliminary preparation” – a line at an eye-rolling distance from the staged nature of the event.
- Earlier in the day Putin’s spokesman said talk of a summit between the Russian president and Joe Biden was premature. The two leaders could arrange a call or meeting at any time but there were no concrete plans for a high-level encounter, he said.
I’m handing the blog over to my colleague, Samantha Lock. Stay tuned for more live updates.
Updated
A No. 10 spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister will chair a COBR [cabinet meeting] at 6:30 am tomorrow morning to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine and to coordinate the UK response, including agreeing a significant package of sanctions to be introduced immediately.”
KYIV — Ukrainian officials say Russian troops may have already entered separatist territory this evening as part of what Vladimir Putin claims is a “peace-keeping mission” to the Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics.
The officials say local people in the town of Makiivka, 15kms west of rebel-held Donetsk, have seen what appear to be Russian armoured vehicles on the move. One source - who declined to be named - said “a huge convoy of Russian armoured personnel carriers and other equipment has been travelling for one and a half hours”. It was spotted heading north towards the city of Yasynuvata, also in the Donestk region.
Video released by Ukraine tonight appears to show a column of military vehicles with their headlights on moving in convoy along a road. The officials said it was not possible to tell if the troops belonged to the regular Russian army, or were from Russian-controlled separatist units.
Emmanuel Macron released a statement condemning Russia’s recognition of two territories in eastern Ukraine as independent.
“By recognizing the separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, Russia is violating its commitments and undermining Ukraine’s sovereignty,” Macron said. “I condemn this decision. I called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council and European sanction.”
En reconnaissant les régions séparatistes de l'est de l'Ukraine, la Russie viole ses engagements et porte atteinte à la souveraineté de l'Ukraine. Je condamne cette décision. J’ai demandé une réunion d'urgence du Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies et des sanctions européennes.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) February 21, 2022
The White House just released some details on the call Joe Biden had with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In a statement, the White House said Biden reaffirmed his commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and condemned Putin’s decision to “purportedly recognize the ‘independence’” of two territories in eastern Ukraine. Biden updated Zelenskyy on the US’ plan response, “including our plan to issue sanctions”.
“President Biden reiterated that the United States would respond swiftly and decisively, in lock-step with its Allies and partners, to further Russian aggression against Ukraine,” said the statement.
The White House also released a statement on Biden’s call with French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz, saying the leaders “discussed how they will continue to coordinate their response on next steps”.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said in a statement that the US condemns Vladimir Putin’s recognition of two territories in eastern Ukraine as independent.
“This decision represents a complete rejection of Russia’s commitments under the Minsk agreements, directly contradicts Russia’s claimed commitment to diplomacy, and is a clear attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Blinken said, adding that the move is a “flagrant disrespect for international law and norms”.
Blinken repeated an earlier announcement from the White House that Joe Biden will be signing an executive order authorizing limited sanctions in the region Putin declared independent.
“Our support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as for the government and people of Ukraine is unwavering,” Blinken said. “We stand with our Ukrainian partners in strongly condemning President Putin’s announcement.”
NEW Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemns Putin's 'flagrant disrespect for international law and norms.' And on the forthcoming sanctions:
— Rob Crilly (@robcrilly) February 21, 2022
'The E.O. is designed to prevent Russia from profiting off of this blatant violation of international law.' pic.twitter.com/GAZ77LjACI
Putin orders troops to descend on eastern Ukraine for 'peacekeeping operations'
Vladimir Putin has ordered “peacekeeping operations” to the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, the two territories in eastern Ukraine that Putin recognized as independent today.
Putin has ordered his military to go to Donetsk and Luhansk regions in order to carry out "peacekeeping functions." In text of the presidential order he signed today recognizing Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. Russia officially occupying parts of Ukraine's Donbas region.
— Andrew Roth (@Andrew__Roth) February 21, 2022
There are already approximately 190,000 Russian troops along the Ukrainian border, the US reported on Friday.
Read our full story here:
Updated
At the end of a tense 10-hour meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, the bloc’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, said those attending had been closely watching the televised Russian security council where Vladimir Putin had discussed recognition of the independence of the eastern Ukrainian territories of Donetsk and Luhansk.
There remain differences of opinion among the 27 member states on what level of sanctions will be imposed on Russia over recognition.
But Borrell said he would table the complete prepared package of punitive measures at an extraordinary meeting of ministers for them to decide by unanimity, and that Russia should be warned that there would be a “strong and united” response.
He said: “I will certainly put on the table the sanctions package that has been prepared. We have a package prepared. This package has certain components that can be implemented with certain degrees depending on the level of aggression.”
Borrell said recognition by Russia of the independence of the eastern territories of Ukraine would be a breach of international law that the EU would not ignore.
The EU will also hit Belarus with the same level of sanctions as Moscow faces should Russian troops invade Ukraine from Belarusian territory, Borrell said. The former Spanish foreign minister said Russia was turning Belarus into a satellite state.
The EU has threatened “severe costs and massive consequences” in the event of a further Russian incursion into Ukraine.
The package has yet to be made public but it would involve a block on exports of key electrical components on which Russia is reliant, potentially an import ban on Russian oil and gas, and the freezing of assets of individuals and companies affiliated to the government in Moscow.
Updated
The UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said that sanctions against Russia would be announced tomorrow.
Tomorrow we will be announcing new sanctions on Russia in response to their breach of international law and attack on Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) February 21, 2022
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Nato secretary, Jens Stoltenberg, released a statement condemning Russia, specifically saying that Russia has violated the Minsk agreements, “to which Russia is a party”, referring to the peace deal made in 2015 following the annexation of Crimea. Russian has denied it is responsible for carrying out the peace deal.
“Moscow continues to fuel the conflict in eastern Ukraine by providing financial and military support to the separatists. It is also trying to stage a pretext to invade Ukraine once again,” Stoltenberg said in his statement.
“Nato supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders. Allies urge Russia, in the strongest possible terms, to choose the path of diplomacy, and to immediately reverse its massive military build-up in and around Ukraine, and withdraw its forces from Ukraine in accordance with its international obligations and commitments.”
Updated
The UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, released a statement that suggests the UK is prepared to take action against Russia for recognising the independence of two territories in eastern Ukraine.
“This step represents a further attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, signals an end to the Minsk process and is a violation of the UN charter. It demonstrates Russia’s decision to choose a path of confrontation over dialogue,” Truss said.
“We will coordinate our response with allies. We will not allow Russia’s violation of its international commitments to go unpunished.”
Updated
The Guardian’s Luke Harding, who is in Kyiv, said that Ukraine’s president, Volodmyr Zelenskiy, will address the nation shortly. His speech will be carried live on all Ukranian TV channels, officials in Kyiv say.
Updated
The White House released a statement rebuking Russia’s recognition of independence for two eastern Ukrainian territories.
The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said in the statement that Joe Biden will be issuing an executive order that will “prohibit new investment, trade, and financing by US persons to, from, or in the so-called DNR and LNR regions of Ukraine”.
The executive order will also allow the imposition of sanctions against “any person determined to operate in those areas of Ukraine”.
“We will also soon announce additional measures related to today’s blatant violation of Russia’s international commitments,” Psaki said in the statement.
“To be clear: these measures are separate from and would be in addition to the swift and severe economic measures we have been preparing in coordination with allies and partners should Russia further invade Ukraine.
“We are continuing to closely consult with allies and partners, including Ukraine, on next steps and on Russia’s ongoing escalation along the border with Ukraine.”
Biden had calls with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a separate one with French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz earlier this afternoo, the White House confirmed. Details of the calls have not been released.
Updated
Ukraine’s prosecutor general has opened a criminal case in connection with Vladimir Putin’s move to change the country’s borders.
Irina Venediktova said she had been forced to act after the Russian president this evening recognised the Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics as independent. Both were Ukrainian territories, she wrote on Facebook.
Venediktova said she had initiated a case under part two of article 11o of Ukraine’s criminal code. It forbids deliberate calls to change Ukraine’s borders.
“I don’t have the right to react emotionally,” she posted. “ I can’t joke, speak in any language except for the procedural, or send curses to the address of strangers – all this law does not allow me to do.”
She said Ukrainian prosecutors would pursue the case vigorously. And she hinted that Russian officials responsible for the calls would find themselves subject to travel bans. “Going shopping for members of this club abroad will be difficult – we promise,” she wrote.
Updated
Reaction to Putin’s recognition of independence in two Ukrainian territories continues to pour in from European leaders.
In a joint statement, Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the presidents of the European Commisson and European Council, said: “The recognition of the two separatist territories in Ukraine is a blatant violation of international law, the territorial integrity of Ukraine and the Minsk agreements.
“The EU and its partners will react with unity, firmness and determination in solidarity with Ukraine”.
Alar Karis, the president of Estonia, said: “Estonia will never accept the illegal decision by Russia to recognise Donetsk and Luhansk regions. They are an internationally recognised part of Ukraine, like Crimea. Clearly, Moscow is not serious about diplomacy but is looking for casus belli.”
The Latvian prime minister, Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš, said: “The decision taken by the president of the Russian Federation to recognise the independence of Luhansk and Donetsk, the Ukrainian territories outside the government’s control, is a continuation of the attack on Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity that began in 2014 by unlawfully changing borders in Europe.
“In a gross violation of international law, under a fabricated pretext, and by spreading false information, Russia seeks to induce a change in Ukraine’s political leadership and foreign policy course by violent means.
“While utterly condemning Russia’s actions, Latvia urges the international community to take the strongest possible measures to stop Russia’s aggression and offer assistance to Ukraine.
“We call on the international community to action through putting in place robust economic sanctions against the Russian Federation and persons responsible for encroachment on Ukraine’s statehood.”
Updated
Vladimir Putin’s declaration that Russia will recognise the independence of the breakaway regions of eastern Europe was greeted in the US and Europe with dismay and warnings of sanctions, write Julian Borger and Daniel Boffey.
There was also alarm at Putin’s warnings of further action against Ukraine as a whole, questioning the country’s legitimacy and presenting a direct threat to Russia.
Boris Johnson said Putin’s decision to recognise the Donetsk and Luhanks regions was “plainly in breach of international law. It is a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine.” The UK prime minister also described it as an “ill omen” and a “dark sign” that things are moving in the wrong direction.
Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron expressed German and French “disappointment” after having been informed of the decision by Putin before his speech, according to a Kremlin account of the call.
As Putin staged his security council meeting, and ahead of the Russian leader’s televised address, Joe Biden summoned his top national security officials at the White House, including the CIA director, William Burns, and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Mark Milley.
It was not immediately clear whether Putin’s declaration would mean the cancellation of a potential summit between Biden and Putin. The Kremlin had earlier played down the prospect of the summit as “premature”, while the US made clear it would not take place if Russia invaded.
Updated
Some helpful analysis from Sam Greene, a professor at King’s College London and director of the university’s Russia Institute.
Greene on Twitter called Putin’s televised address that preceded his formal recognition of two eastern Ukrainian territories “unbelievably dark and aggressive”.
“I’ve watched a lot of Putin speeches, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen on quite like this,” Green said. “This is a speech designed not to make people happy, but to make them angry.”
This whole speech is -- as with his earlier essays -- laying the groundwork for the wholesale occupation of Ukraine. That doesn't mean that's where he's heading, but he's giving people a big wind-up.
— Sam Greene (@samagreene) February 21, 2022
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he had discussed “the events of the last hours” with Joe Biden and was beginning a meeting with the country’s national security and defense council. He said he planned to have a conversation with Boris Johnson.
Discussed the events of the last hours with @POTUS. We begin the meeting of the National Security and Defense Council. A conversation with @BorisJohnson is also planned.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 21, 2022
Updated
A look at the implications if Russia were to invade Ukraine:
Updated
In London, the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, said Vladimir Putin’s decision to recognise the two separatist Ukrainian republics was “plainly in breach of international law. It is a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine.” He also described it as an “ill omen” and a “dark sign” that things were moving in the wrong direction.
Updated
Putin to recognise independence of breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine
After a long-winded speech lasting nearly an hour, Vladimir Putin said he w recognise the independence of two territories of eastern Ukraine, the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).
Following a televised address to Russia aired on the country’s state-run news channel, Putin joined the leaders of the LPR and DPR to sign a decree recognising the independence of the two territories.
“Those who took the path of violence, bloodshed and lawlessness did not recognise and don’t recognise any other solution to the Donbas problem besides the military,” Putin said. “Therefore, I believe it is necessary to take a long overdue decision to immediately recognise the independence and sovereignty of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic.”
Russia has controlled and armed the two states since the outbreak of fighting in southeast Ukraine following a revolution in Kyiv in 2014, but wanted to keep them in Ukraine with the right to veto crucial decisions such as membership in Nato.
Ukraine has said it will contest any decision by Russia to recognise the territories’ independence and would recognise the move as a Russian decision to exit the Minsk agreements, the peace deal signed in 2015 that appears close to collapse.
Updated
Putin is over 50 minutes into his televised address to Russia. After speaking on the history of Ukraine and Russia, Putin is now talking about the state of Ukraine today, saying that the country is “being controlled from the outside”.
“Ukraine has become a colony of puppets,” Putin said. “Ukrainians squandered not only everything we gave them during the USSR, but even everything they inherited from the Russian empire. Even the work created by Catherine the Great.”
Putin told the nation that Ukraine was “preparing military action against our country” and that the country would develop nuclear weapons.
The president then pivoted a rant about Nato, saying that Nato is “commanding” Ukrainian troops and that the organisation the actual “aggressor”.
"Western nations are giving us token words about sovereign rights of countries to choose their defense alliances". (Sneers). We have full right to take counter measures to defend our security. And this is what we will do"
— Christo Grozev (@christogrozev) February 21, 2022
Updated
Seems like the bulk of Putin’s televised address, which has been going on for more than 20 minutes, has so far been mostly a review of Ukraine and Russia’s history.
Putin said that Russia was “robbed” by the collapse of the Soviet Union and that Ukraine “has never had traditions of its own statehood”.
Putin: collapse of historic Russia, the "Soviet Union" was a failure of its leaders and their policies
— Anton Barbashin (@ABarbashin) February 21, 2022
Putin now on to modern day: "Ukraine has never had traditions of its own statehood... the Ukrainian state is built on denying everything that invites us, the historical memory of millions of people"
— max seddon (@maxseddon) February 21, 2022
Updated
Vladimir Putin is speaking in a televised address right now. Putin has been speaking at length about Ukraine’s tied history with Russia, saying Russia created Ukraine and calling Lenin the “author and creator” of Ukraine.
Putin: Modern Ukraine was wholly and fully created by Russia. Namely Bolshevik, Communist Russia.
— Andrew Roth (@Andrew__Roth) February 21, 2022
Putin made a direct threat to Ukraine, saying Russia is “prepared to show you what real decommunisation looks like”.
Putin: "This is what they call de-communisation... You want de-communisation? That suits us fine. But don't stop halfway. We're ready to show Ukraine what real de-communisation means for it."
— Andrew Roth (@Andrew__Roth) February 21, 2022
Updated
I have been talking to a senior official from an east European country after Putin’s staged security council meeting. The official expressed concern about splits in allied resolve in the face of a Russian recognition of Luhansk and Donetsk “independence”.
”It might be not a direct invasion, but instead … recognition, then maybe dragging on some days or weeks before Russian so-called ‘peacekeepers’ enter Luhansk and Donetsk occupied territories,” the official said. “Then it’s a grey zone, where you are not sure if that triggers sanctions, especially for for some European Union countries which are further from from the front line.”
Updated
Putin 'intends to recognise pro-Russian breakaway republics'
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, told the leaders of France and Germany on Monday that he intends to sign a decree later today recognising the two pro-Russian breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin said in a statement on Monday evening.
“In the near future, the president plans to sign the order,” the Kremlin said.
According to the Kremlin, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, “expressed their disappointment with this development of the situation” but “indicated their readiness to continue contacts”.
Earlier on Monday, Scholz said that Russia would be breaching the 2015 Minsk peace accords if it were to recognise the independence of east Ukraine’s rebel republics.
In a call with Putin, the German leader warned that “such a step would be a gross contradiction of the Minsk agreement for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in east Ukraine and a unilateral breach of these deals from the Russian side.”
The EU on Monday evening also urged Putin not to recognise the Donbas as an independent.
“We call upon President Putin to respect international law and the Minsk agreements and expect him not to recognise the independence of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts,” the blocs foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, told journalists after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, according to the Reuters news agency.
Vladimir Putin will address the nation in a video address Monday night, the Kremlin said.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called an emergency meeting of Ukraine’s national security and defence council.
Updated
After the meeting in Russia Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, warned against formal recognition of the separatist regions and said he has asked UN Security Council members to discuss “de-escalation” and “practical steps to guarantee the security of Ukraine”.
On President @ZelenskyyUa’s initiative I officially requested UNSC member states to immediately hold consultations under article 6 of the Budapest memorandum to discuss urgent actions aimed at de-escalation, as well as practical steps to guarantee the security of Ukraine.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 21, 2022
This likely sets the stage for a meeting of the Security Council where Ukraine can put its case to the world. Any of the current members can request an urgent meeting, which has to be held within 24 hours of the formal demand going in.
Russia is currently president and so may be able to control whether the meeting is closed or open. However western member countries that have been pushing hard for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis are likely to group together in a show of strength, to try and ensure the cameras of the world’s media can record the gathering, one envoy said.
Kuleba warned that any move to give the territories official status would represent a dangerous escalation.
“Not only Ukraine, the entire world now closely follows Russia’s actions regarding the recognition of the so-called ‘L/DPR’. Everyone realises consequences. A lot of emotions out there, but it’s exactly now that we all should calmly focus on de-escalation efforts. No other way.”
Ukraine claims that under an agreement signed as part of efforts to remove nuclear weapons from the country in the post-Soviet era, the west undertook to protect the country from external attack. The Budapest memorandum was signed by three nuclear powers – Russia, the US and the UK – in December 1994,
but Moscow has brushed aside the treaty as irrelevant.
Updated
Ukraine’s former defence minister, Andriy Zagorodnyuk, said any attempt by Russia to expand the territory controlled by pro-Moscow separatists would mean a full-scale war with Ukraine.
The historic borders of Luhansk and Donetsk regions are much larger than the exiting pro-Moscow-run areas. Key Ukrainian cities include the port city of Mariupol, Kramatorsk – where Ukraine’s army has its eastern HQ – and numerous villages.
“Those regions are regular towns where people live regular lives. Any attempt to occupy those areas would be direct violent aggression by Russia onto Ukraine. There would be war,” Zagorodnyuk said. He added: “There would some attacks, resistance, deaths, casualties, losses. And there would be trials against Putin as a war criminal.”
He continued: “Ukraine has lots of weapons there and Ukraine is not going to give it up just like that. Why the hell should we? It’s like someone comes to UK and says, ‘Now I think this town should belong to France’. Obviously it’s going to be a very nasty process, dramatic and tragic.
“The legal consequences of that are exactly as if the Russian go to Kyiv. It’s the same territory of the same sovereign state.”
Updated
Vladimir Putin will address the nation in a video address Monday night, according to Reuters. The address will be on Rossiya-24, the state television channel. It is unclear when the address will be aired.
MOSCOW, Feb 21 (Reuters) - #Russian President Vladimir Putin will deliver a video address to the nation on television on Monday evening, the Rossiya-24 state television channel said.
— Hümeyra Pamuk (@humeyra_pamuk) February 21, 2022
It did not say exactly when it would happen, but that it would be soon.
Putin to decide on recognising breakaway regions on Monday
Vladimir Putin has said he is considering recognising the Russian-controlled territories in southeast Ukraine as independent states in what would be a pivotal decision, scuttling an existing peace agreement and possibly triggering tough new sanctions from the west.
In an extraordinary meeting of his security council broadcast on national television, the Russian president said he would make a decision later on Monday following a choreographed back-and-forth with his top advisers designed to prepare public support for the decision.
“We’ve been negotiating for eight years,” Putin told his aides at one point. “We’re at a dead end.”
In turn, each of Putin’s top advisers stood at a lectern and delivered a speech that ended in favour of recognition of the separatist states in Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk regions, which have been at war with Kyiv since 2014.
It ended in a made-for-TV cliffhanger. “I have heard your opinion – a decision will be made today,” Putin said.
Russia has controlled and armed the two states since the outbreak of fighting in southeast Ukraine following a revolution in Kyiv in 2014, but wanted to keep them in Ukraine with the right to veto crucial decisions like membership in Nato.
Ukraine has said it will contest any decision by Russia to recognise the territories’ independence and would recognise the move as a Russian decision to exit the Minsk agreements, the peace deal signed in 2015 that appears close to collapse.
Putin may still choose not to recognise the two states’ independence, using the staged debate with his advisors to show the western leaders that they are running out of time to negotiate. But it appears more likely he will follow the unanimous advice of his aides and close allies to recognise the two territories in a dangerous shift of the status quo.
The decision could either freeze the conflict in southeast Ukraine or reignite it, depending on the Ukrainian response and whether Putin seeks to take further territory.
Joe Biden is meeting with his national security team today. Eyewitnesses saw the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, the secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, and the US army general Mark Milley go into the White House this morning.
Biden is meeting with his national security team today, the White House confirms. Gen Milley, Sec Austin, and Sec Blinken all just spotted arriving at the West Wing.
— Mary Bruce (@marykbruce) February 21, 2022
Updated
Our central and eastern Europe correspondent, Shaun Walker, reports that if Putin decides to recognise the two territories based on their 2014 borders – as his interior minister has suggested he do – that would likely lead to war.
Shaun writes:
The territory currently controlled by the so-called people’s republics is less than half of the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but both entities claim sovereignty over the whole regions. In the summer of 2014, the Ukrainian army took back control over many towns that had initially been seized by Russia-backed separatists. If Russia recognises the territories in those borders, it raises the threat of a potential military campaign to retake them.
Summary
Here is a summary of events so far, on a day when fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine reached boiling point.
- Ukraine has rejected as “fake news” a claim from the Russian army that it killed five “saboteurs” attempting to cross the border in the Russian region of Rostov. Ukrainian officials said not a single soldier had been killed and their forces were not present in the Rostov region.
- Vladimir Putin promised to take a decision on whether to recognise two breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine later on Monday, after leaders of the self-declared republics appealed to the Kremlin to recognise their independence in co-ordinated statements on Russian state TV.
- The Russian president was speaking at an impromptu meeting of Russia’s national security council, where top officials lined up to echo nationalist talking points, such as the baseless claims of genocide in eastern Ukraine and drawing parallels with Russia’s 2008 war with Georgia. The meeting was broadcast on Russian state television: Putin said it was “happening spontaneously, because I wanted to hear your opinions without any preliminary preparation” – a line at an eye-rolling distance from the staged nature of the event.
- Earlier in the day Putin’s spokesman said talk of a summit between the Russian president and Joe Biden was premature. The two leaders could arrange a call or meeting at any time but there were no concrete plans for a high-level encounter, he said.
- Western officials believe Putin is now poised to invade, as they said the Russian military build up continues.
- Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, urged the EU to impose sanctions on Russia now, a call backed by Lithuania, whose foreign minister said Ukraine was under attack. But foreign ministers meeting in Brussels declined to follow this path. Instead the EU high representative on foreign policy, Josep Borrell, repeated his promise the EU would act “at the right moment”.
That’s all from me, Jennifer Rankin, as I hand over the blog to Lauren Aratani.
Updated
UK defence minister warns Russian invasion will lead to humanitarian crisis
Vladimir Putin’s “commitment” to invade Ukraine will lead to a humanitarian crisis, UK defence secretary Ben Wallace warned, Nicola Slawson reports from London.
She is following Wallace for our UK politics live blog, as he speaks to the House of Commons.
Wallace said:
I believe he is in danger of setting himself on a tragic course of events leading to a humanitarian crisis, instability and widespread suffering, not just of Ukrainians but also of the Russian people.
The defence secretary also warned of continued “false flag” operations orchestrated by the Kremlin, which he described as of “strong cause for concern that President Putin is still committed to an invasion”.
Russia continues to be ready to attack Ukraine and has increased troop numbers in the region, the defence secretary has said.
Wallace told MPs:
In the last 48 hours, contrary to Kremlin assurances we have see a continued increase in troop numbers and a change in … position including from holding areas and potential launch locations.
All the indicators point to increasing numbers and readiness of Russia forces and, not surprising to many of us, the pledge to withdraw Russian troops from Belarus at the end of their joint military drills on February 20, were not carried out and the exercise has now been extended until further notice.
Updated
Russia 'poised to invade'
Russian forces are now “poised to invade” if President Vladimir Putin gives the order, western officials believe, with more troops heading closer to Ukraine’s borders in both Russia and Belarus.
Two-thirds of 110 battalions are positioned within 50km of the border – up from half a week ago – and of those half are “tactically deployed” in temporary locations close to Ukraine.
The officials said they believed “the diplomatic path was not over” and that the purpose of French president Emmanuel Macron’s dialogue with Putin on Sunday “was to continue to engage President Putin in dialogue and diplomacy”. But they argued the continuing military buildup was not consistent with any easing of the crisis. Russian forces have “moved from being in a position to attack to being poised to attack. That is not consistent at this point with the Russians engaging in a diplomatic de escalation”.
Military sources added that Russia could maintain troops this close to the border only “for a matter of days” but said they could retreat to staging areas further back. It would eventually become necessary to rotate personnel if Russia wanted to maintain a constant presence near Ukraine for several months.
Updated
Vladimir Putin says a decision on whether to recognise two breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine will be taken later on Monday.
It finishes with Putin saying the decision will be taken today. If the decision is to recognise the republics within the 2014 borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, that means a war.
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) February 21, 2022
This ends the live broadcast of the Russian security council.
More from the ongoing Russian security council meeting, including a moment when one senior official, the head of foreign intelligence Sergei Naryshkin, appears to veer off the script.
Naryshkin seems to stumble and go off script, saying he wants to see the two proxy republics as part of Russia. Putin quickly says that’s not what the discussion is about
— Pjotr Sauer (@PjotrSauer) February 21, 2022
Awkward between Putin and misspeaking spy chief Naryshkin
— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) February 21, 2022
N Agree should give west chance and then support independence
P Speak plainly: you will support or support now
N I support special status for Donbass in Russia
P We’re not talking about that. Independence
N (pause) Yes.
Head of RU Ministry of Defence Sergey Shoygu: We have no other choice but to YES, YES, recognise the independence of the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk
— Elena Chernenko (@ElenaChernenko) February 21, 2022
Updated
Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president, has backed the recognition of the two-self proclaimed people’s republics during the unscheduled meeting of the security council, writes Pjotr Sauer in Moscow.
Medvedev, now deputy chairman of the security council, said:
There are no signs of improvement, the only way out will be to recognise the legal personality of these territories.
Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, as well as speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko, also urged Putin to recognise the two pro-Russian proxy republics.
Putin is expected to make a decision on the recognition of the breakaway proxy states later during the meeting.
The head of the Russian security service, the FSB, has told Vladimir Putin the situation in two breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine is deteriorating, Reuters reports.
Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB, is speaking at a televised meeting of Russia’s security council being chaired by the Russian president.
Here are tweets from correspondents following the meeting:
Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB, now talking about accused Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory. He claims they have captured a Ukrainian soldier.
— max seddon (@maxseddon) February 21, 2022
This is just utterly surreal pic.twitter.com/useM0PYTyl
This is v clearly moving in the direction of recognising the DNR and LNR, which by the way the Russian ambassador to the US explicitly ruled out happening a full 24 hours ago. What else would happen on top of that, and whether DNR/LNR in current or "desired" boundaries, unclear.
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) February 21, 2022
Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev, who filled in for Putin from 2008-12, has also taken the floor. Now deputy chair of Russia’s security council, he claims the majority of Russians would support independence for the two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.
Medvedev just mentioned to Putin Russia's stance toward Georgia in 2008, when it invaded this post-Soviet state. Not a good sign.
— Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) February 21, 2022
Somebody woke up Medvedev, who is reciting talking points about "NATO attempting to redraw the map of the world" and crossing #Russia's "red lines." He is advocating for Russia to recognize the so-called "republics" it created in E. Ukraine.
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) February 21, 2022
Valentina Matvienko, another member of the security council, is now echoing Putin’s earlier (completely unfounded) claim about genocide in eastern Ukraine.
Now it's Valentina Matvienko, the only woman on the security council, who says the last seven years have been "a real genocide" by Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/cY5X39TddL
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) February 21, 2022
And on the question of the seating arrangements...
This is not the time for jokes but it's quite something that just at the moment when a massive table would actually be justified, for a security council meeting, everyone ends up with no table at all, except Putin who gets his own one pic.twitter.com/cVoqxIAwPi
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) February 21, 2022
Updated
Pro-Moscow separatists appeal to Kremlin for recognition
The leaders of two-self proclaimed people’s republics formally asked Vladimir Putin to recognise their independence in a coordinated appeal on Monday, a move that is set to further inflame the situation in eastern Ukraine.
“Russia’s recognition of Luhansk will allow the prevention of the loss of life of citizens of the republic, 300,000 of whom are Russians,” Luhansk People’s Republic leader Leonid Pasechnik said in a video aired on Russian state television. Russia has issued passports to hundreds of thousands of residents of the separatist-held enclaves,
Almost simultaneously, Denis Pushilin, the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, went on Russian state television to also ask Putin to recognise it as an independent state.
Speaking on Monday to Russia’s national security council, Putin said the idea should be considered:
Our goal is listen consider our colleagues and determine our next steps in this direction, bearing in mind both the appeals of the leaders of the DNR and LNR to recognise their independence.
Both separatist leaders have claimed that the Ukrainian army was planning an assault to retake the Donbas regions, claims flatly denied by Ukraine and rejected by the west.
The DNR and LNR only hold about half of the Donbas region, but claim the right to territory controlled by Ukraine. Observers have warned that if Putin moves to recognise the territories, it could further escalate the situation in the region.
Russia’s State Duma last week backed a resolution calling for diplomatic recognition of the two pro-Russian proxy states. Putin initially put the decision to recognise the states on hold, saying the Kremlin preferred to solve the current standoff through the Minsk peace process.
Updated
Russian president Vladimir Putin is now speaking at an impromptu meeting of Russia’s national security council.
Putin is running this Security Council meeting like a Netflix drama. Starts by saying basically we're all going to decide the fate of Ukraine today, then lots of plot filling from the others before we get the answer.
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) February 21, 2022
Extraordinary way to find out the future fate of Europe. pic.twitter.com/Q1IDSWJnQi
Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, has been talking about why the administration sent the UN high commissioner for human rights a letter warning of Russian kill lists of Ukrainians to be executed after an invasion, and to crush civilian resistance with lethal force, reports Julian Borger in Washington.
Sullivan told NBC’s Today show:
We believe that any military operation of the size, scope and magnitude of what we believe the Russians are planning will be extremely violent. It will cost the lives of Ukrainians and Russians, civilians and military personnel alike.
But we also have intelligence to suggest that there will be an even greater form of brutality because this will not simply be some conventional war between two armies. It will be a war waged by Russia on the Ukrainian people, to repress them, crush them, to harm them. And that is what we laid out in detail for the UN because we believe that the world must mobilise to counter this kind of Russian aggression, should those tanks roll across the border, as we anticipate they very well may do in the coming hours or days.
Updated
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe has announced an emergency meeting on Ukraine, as the frantic search for a diplomatic solution continues.
In a tweet the OSCE’s secretary general Helga Schmid said dialogue channels were needed, including the Trilateral Contact Group, a forum for Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE officials to discuss the conflict.
Extraordinary meeting of @OSCE Permanent Council today on #Ukraine. Will brief States about our efforts & potential way forward.
— Helga Maria Schmid (@HelgaSchmid_SG) February 21, 2022
Need dialogue channels open, both in Vienna and the Trilateral Contact Group. @OSCE_SMM’s impartial monitoring critical to counter disinformation. https://t.co/TqC3dt5had
During Emmanuel Macron’s call with Vladimir Putin late on Sunday, they agreed the Trilateral Contact Group should meet “in the next hours”, according to the French readout of the discussion.
Updated
Some important context on the “request” from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic for military aid, from the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth.
Russia can act at any moment but worth noting that DNR ‘request’ for financial and military aid was an answer by a spokesman in an interview where he was asked “What help do you need from Russia?” Not quite a formal appeal. https://t.co/M6ej1VPNOe
— Andrew Roth (@Andrew__Roth) February 21, 2022
Lithuania’s foreign minister has said “Ukraine is already under attack” and announced a joint visit with his Estonian and Latvian counterparts to show solidarity.
Ukraine is already under attack: economic, cyber, military. One way to express solidarity with Ukraine is by going to Kyiv. We Baltic Ministers 🇱🇹🇱🇻🇪🇪 are going there later this week. If there is one place where EU politicians should be now – it‘s with our Ukrainian friends!
— Gabrielius Landsbergis (@GLandsbergis) February 21, 2022
Gabrielius Landsbergis has been urging the EU to launch sanctions against Russia now, a path other member states decided not to take at a meeting of foreign affairs ministers earlier on Monday on Brussels. Events could soon require them to think again.
Veteran French ambassador Gérard Araud sums up the situation:
Unfortunately it seems that Russia has put in place all the elements to launch a strike against Ukraine: the army is ready, the alleged provocations have been committed, the expected calls for help have been made. All that is missing is the green light from Putin.
Il semble hélas que la Russie mette en place tous les éléments pour lancer une agression contre l’Ukraine : l’armée est prête, les prétendues provocations sont commises, les appels à l’aide attendus proférés. Il ne manque plus que le feu vert de Poutine.
— Gérard Araud (@GerardAraud) February 21, 2022
More from Ukraine’s foreign ministry on the Russian claims to have foiled an attack, via Luke Harding in Kyiv.
Not a single one of our soldiers has crossed the border with the Russian federation and not a single one has been killed today.
Ukraine rejects 'fake' Russian claims about border incursion
Ukraine’s ministry of foreign affairs and ministry of defence said the Russian claim was “fake”, reports Luke Harding from Kyiv
“It’s not true,” a spokesperson said, adding a full statement would be released shortly.
The Ukraine military has robustly rejected Russian claims of a foiled border raid into Russia as “fake news”. Ukrainian military officials say their forces are not present in Russia’s Rostov region, Reuters reports.
Updated
A leader of one of the breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine has appealed to Moscow for financial and military support, according to Russian media.
Eduard Basurin, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said “moral support” was his first priority, followed by financial and military help. “People living here must know that no one can betray us behind our backs,” he said on a YouTube video picked up by the RBK website.
No official statement has been made, points out Moscow correspondent Pjotr Sauer.
In helpful timing for the separatists, Putin has convened an emergency meeting of his security council, which would be the venue to agree such aid.
Western analysts see this – and Russia’s claims to have killed five Ukrainian army “saboteurs” – as part of the Kremlin’s script to create a pretext for an invasion.
Another non-surprise as the script unfolds https://t.co/nyXnJwgCmv
— François Heisbourg (@FHeisbourg) February 21, 2022
Updated
Russia reports five deaths and claims attempted border incursion
Russian military officials have said five people who tried to breach Russia’s border have been killed, Reuters reports.
Russian officials have said Russian troops and border guards prevented “saboteurs” from breaching their shared border, according to Russian wires cited by Reuters. Ukrainian armed vehicles were destroyed in Russia’s Rostov region, according to the reports.
According to the Interfax news agency, the clash took place around 6am Moscow time in the Rostov region near the Russia-Ukraine border.
FSB border guards discovered an alleged “sabotage group” and called for help from Russia’s Southern army district.
A unit of the Russian army destroyed two Ukrainian army vehicles alleged to have crossed the border to evacuate the “saboteurs”, according to an official statement given to Interfax.
The “attack” took place near the village of Mityankinskaya, across from the rebel-held so-called Luhansk People’s Republic, Luke Harding reports from Kyiv. Russian state media reported last week that a Ukrainian “shell” had landed across the border in the same area.
Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksii Reznikov said earlier on Monday that his military was not engaged in any acts of sabotage, and had been given strict instructions not to return fire.
He said Moscow had created numerous fake stories and videos in recent days, in order to give Vladimir Putin a pretext to attack Ukraine.
This post has been amended to clarify that Russian news reports claim Ukrainian army vehicles crossed the border to evacuate the “saboteurs”.
Updated
Photos of a temporary accommodation centre at a school sports hall in Russia for evacuees from the separatist-controlled regions in eastern Ukraine:
During a break in the meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers in Brussels, the Lithuanian minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told reporters that the continued presence of Russian troops in Belarus had been a focus of discussion, and the government in Minsk is no longer seen as an independent actor.
Belarusian troops are receiving their commands now more and more from the Russian political decision makers and less from Belarusian and that means that there’s low, very low, levels of independence in the Belarusian army.
Diplomatic sources said the European Commission had proposed imposing further sanctions on Belarus during the meeting of ministers, with the support of Germany.
Landsbergis said he welcomed France’s efforts to secure a summit between US president Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin that he did not believe the Russian leader wanted to de-escalate.
It’s very difficult to imagine, you know, having a nice diplomatic conversation, when we don’t have any leverage. If they are shelling the contact line [in the Donbas region], if they’re attacking Ukrainian institutions with the cyber attacks and still building up the troops, that puts us in a very difficult situation. So we have to be very clear, if we want to have a meaningful discussion, that, first of all, the escalation has to stop.
Joe Biden asked Emmanuel Macron to make the offer of a summit between Biden and Vladimir Putin to the Russian president, Reuters reports, citing a French presidency official.
The French official described Macron as a facilitator, adding:
We’re slowly changing the course of things. We’re creating a diplomatic perspective the Kremlin accepts.
Western leaders are showing “unbelievable naivety” if they think a summit between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin can avert war now, according to the respected Russian politics analyst Tatiana Stanovaya.
In a post on her Telegram account, following late-night diplomacy between Putin and Emmanuel Macron, she argues the train has already left the station. “Everything has already been decided,” she said, following the west’s refusal to give the Russian president security guarantees - namely a veto on Nato expansion and rollback of the alliance’s forces to pre-1997 borders. “Just talking on the phone and exchanging concerns will not stop anything,” she writes. “Everything is already starting up.”
Long-term observers of Russian politics hope she is wrong …
My habitual inclination to always trust @Stanovaya is fighting with my own (however naive) desire to hope that maybe this one time her analysis is off. Increasingly hard to do. https://t.co/j1ZoKJqfsm
— Joshua Yaffa (@yaffaesque) February 21, 2022
Updated
The UK foreign secretary Liz Truss has repeated warnings that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is “highly likely”, following a meeting with Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg.
Met @jensstoltenberg @NATO. Diplomacy must be pursued but a Russian invasion of Ukraine looks highly likely. The UK and allies are stepping up preparations for the worst case scenario. We must make the cost for Russia intolerably high. pic.twitter.com/RNXGSaQBAQ
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) February 21, 2022
Air France has become the latest airline to cancel flights to Kyiv as a “precautionary measure” in response to western warnings of an imminent invasion.
The airline said it was cancelling two flights to Kyiv on Tuesday in a statement to Reuters, while monitoring the “geopolitical situation”.
Ukraine’s infrastructure minister Oleksander Kubrakov said ten airlines had adjusted their flight schedule, although he insisted it was safe to fly into his country. Germany’s Lufthansa has said it is stopping flights to Ukraine, following an earlier announcement from Dutch airline KLM.
Olaf Scholz to speak to Vladimir Putin on Monday afternoon - German gov
German chancellor Olaf Scholz will speak to Vladimir Putin by phone on Monday afternoon, a German government spokesperson has announced, adding that the intensifying conflict was an “extremely dangerous situation”, Reuters reports.
The spokesman said sanctions against Russia would be put in place after further territorial infringements of Ukraine, adding that western countries would decide what would qualify as territorial infringement.
This will be a key question for the EU and US, with Lithuania already calling for the immediate imposition of sanctions.
Updated
A Russian human rights activist has said Russians are afraid to protest against war with Ukraine, as he described being forcibly dragged away from his one-man picket.
Lev Ponomarev was speaking to the independent radio station Echo Moskvi about his detention following a one-man protest against war with Ukraine.
He said he didn’t even have time to protest before police arrested him, while a colleague was attacked after a few seconds. He told the police he would go himself, but they dragged him away, he said, twisting his arms from behind. But “fortunately” they didn’t beat him, he said.
I’ve taken the quotes from the Radio Echo Moskvi twitter feed and it is not clear when or where his protest took place.
Video footage on Sunday shows six people in Moscow being dragged away from a protest against war, as soon as they unfurled banners.
1968: four days after Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring, eight Soviet citizens protested in Red Square and held up banners denouncing the invasion. They were arrested and some put in psychiatric institutions.
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) February 20, 2022
2022: https://t.co/RAtcJLHhr0
Updated
If Vladimir Putin has already decided to invade Ukraine, can he be stopped? Ukraine’s former defence minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk thinks he can – if the west is ready to be decisive and spell out the consequences of war.
Zagorodnyuk thinks war can still be averted:
So, what are the options and is it too late to stop it all?
We believe, even with the very short time available, that it is still possible to stop Putin from starting war. But that largely depends on the steps made by world leaders in the next day or two.
We know from studying the Russian decision-making process for years that they always choose from a few options available. While being very persistent with his end goals, Putin has adopted an agile approach: when he meets serious resistance, he will step back and adjust his actions.
World leaders need to demonstrate to Putin that this will not be a quick victorious war, but a disaster that will lead to Russian political isolation, sanctions that will destroy its economy, and a humiliating military defeat. Ultimately, it could mark the end of Putin’s political career, leaving his place in history as the architect of Russia’s decline instead of a period of grandeur.
The steps the west could take to persuade him of this are clear. Sanctions must be imposed to stop Russia having an active role in the global economy. Russia makes a lot of money from the west, its businesspeople reside in the UK, US and Europe, it is a member of western capital markets, a major supplier of commodities, and enjoys the perks of that involvement. At the same time, it violently challenges the very principles upon which western democracies are founded. Russian society needs to understand that the west will stop it. The sanctions must not just be hard, they must be devastating.
Read his full piece here: Leave Putin in no doubt: Russia will be economically crippled – and he may be tried for war crimes
Updated
Russia’s security service, the FSB, has claimed that a shell from Ukraine completely destroyed a border guard post in Russia’s Rostov region but caused no casualties, the Interfax news agency reports.
The incident occurred 150 metres from the border between Russia and Ukraine, Interfax cited the FSB as saying.
Here is the Guardian’s central and eastern European correspondent, Shaun Walker, on the report:
This whole buildup is less false flag and more “hastily stitched-together and very obviously invented” flag https://t.co/Ppt66ePVv4
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) February 21, 2022
Moscow has over the last few days blamed Ukraine for a number of incidents involving Ukrainian shells allegedly exploding in Russia’s border region of Rostov, reports Pjotr Sauer in Moscow.
Kyiv previously denied that it was responsible for the shellings, calling for an independent investigation into the incidents.
Tensions in the Donbas continue to rise, despite reports by French officials that President Emmanuel Macron and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed to work for a ceasefire.
Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said on Monday that the situation in the Donbas was “critical”, claiming Ukrainian forces continued to shell Donetsk outskirts, accusations Kyiv repeatedly rejected.
Updated
French and Russian foreign ministers to talk on Monday
France’s foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has said he will hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov later on Monday, as attempts continue to defuse the crisis over Ukraine.
À Bruxelles, où je rendrai compte aux 27 de nos échanges récents avec la Russie, l’Ukraine et les Etats-Unis. Solidarité des 27 ce matin avec notre collègue ukrainien @DmytroKuleba. Je m’entretiendrai cet après-midi avec mon collègue russe Lavrov.#PFUE2022 @francediplo
— Jean-Yves Le Drian (@JY_LeDrian) February 21, 2022
Le Drian is updating EU foreign ministers in Brussels, after last night’s late phone calls between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin. France, which has taken the diplomatic lead in Europe’s talks with Moscow, has been keen to reassure EU allies that it is not freelancing.
Updated
Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov has said there was no sign of Russian forces withdrawing from the border and that Moscow-backed rebels continue to shell Ukrainian positions, reports AFP.
Local resident Valeriy, 63, shows a building, which he said was damaged by recent separatist shelling in the village of Taramchuk in the Donetsk region, Ukraine. Photograph: Maksim Levin/Reuters
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, Reznkiov said 14 attacks had been recorded, 13 of them from weapons banned under the Minsk agreements. One Ukrainian soldier had been wounded.
Reznikov said any move by Russia to recognise the breakaway Donbas regions could pave the way for Moscow to create a pretext for invasion.
According to Interfax Ukraine, he said an invasion could be presented as sending in peacekeepers.
If tomorrow or the day after tomorrow or the day after that, they [Russia] recognise these terrorist groups that call themselves republics, they will directly violate the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. This will already be a violation of generally recognised norms of international law, and this will mean that, in fact, this is there is a pretext … for a potential invasion, through some kind of introduction of some kind of peacekeepers or something like that, they would call it.
Updated
Over 60,000 people have crossed into Russia from the two-self pro-Russian proclaimed proxy states since regional leaders announced a mass evacuation on Friday, Russia’s ministry of emergency has said, reports Pjotr Sauer in Moscow.
In a call with Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine for the evacuation of the Donbas citizens, saying that because of Ukraine’s actions “civilians in the Donbas are suffering, and have to then have to be evacuated to Russia to protect them the from growing violence”.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly dismissed any intention of mounting an attack in the eastern Donbas region while US president Joe Biden said it “defies basic logic” for Ukraine to try to reclaim the Donbas territory with an estimated 150,000 Russian forces now massed on their nation’s borders.
Western officials continue to warn that the Russian-backed separatist leaders have been reporting false events and staging incidents intended to provide Moscow with an excuse to start an offensive in Ukraine.
Over the weekend, pro-Moscow separatists repeatedly accused the Ukrainian military of shelling in eastern Ukraine, accusations Kyiv flatly denied.
The Ukrainian military said on SundayRussian-backed separatists in the Luhansk region had opened fire with heavy artillery on their own capital with the aim of blaming the Ukrainian military.
Updated
Evidence suggests that the sudden evacuations of the Russian-controlled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions were planned and likely to have been designed to set the stage for a formal Russian intervention, writes the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth from Russia’s frontier with Ukraine. But the situation for new arrivals is chaotic, as his report reveals.
For the women, children, and others who are being evacuated, the result is undeniably real and traumatic, as they arrive by the hundreds in a neighbouring region that appears unprepared for the tide of evacuees.
In the early chaos of that effort, some said they felt like pawns in a larger game.
“Maybe they’ll shoot and then it will quiet down,” said Viktoria from Donetsk, who was also at the tent camp on the border. “I think it’s a farce, though. Like when there’s a fuss and then that’s all … a staged event.”
More than 300 evacuees were sent to the Krasny Desant sanatorium just 20 miles from the border. Inside, children ran through the hallways as their parents filled out intake forms and received small handouts such as sim cards. The grounds were patrolled by police, including at least one officer with an automatic rifle (they forced a Guardian correspondent to leave the sanatorium).
In a nearby church, Natalia Chetveryakova, 61, said the seaside camp had housed evacuees in 2014 when the war began in eastern Ukraine and had even hosted refugees in 2008 after the Georgian war.
Some said they were happy to be placed so close to the border and were thankful for the stipend of 10,000 roubles (£95) that the Russian government has promised to give to evacuees. Others expected better conditions.
Beckoning us into her room, where she was staying with her daughter and granddaughter, Sonya, seven, Lyudmila Barskaya showed off the spartan but liveable conditions with an air of resign. “Here are the beds, and that’s all there is,” she said. “All you can do is cry. I understand that it’s like this for us. But nothing more for the children?”
All you can do is cry’: Donbas evacuees face uncertain future in Russia
Updated
Vladimir Putin to address Russia's security council
Vladimir Putin will convene an extraordinary meeting of the Russian Security Council on Monday, his spokesman has said, reports Pjotr Sauer in Moscow.
“This will be a big Security Council. There will be a speech by the head of state as well as other speeches,” Peskov said.
Composed of Russia′s leading state officials and heads of defence and security agencies and chaired by the president of Russia, the security council acts as a platform for determining and coordinating national security policy.
Here is Moscow correspondent Oliver Carroll on the meeting of Russia’s security council:
NB - a full security council, and an unscheduled one https://t.co/2GXJMPMEXf
— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) February 21, 2022
Updated
Kremlin says Biden-Putin summit possible, but no plans yet
Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitri Peskov has said it’s “premature” to talk about specific plans for a summit between the Russian president and Joe Biden.
Peskov said Putin and Biden could meet if they consider it necessary, but emphasised that “it’s premature to talk about specific plans for a summit” and no concrete plans were in place.
Earlier, Emmanuel Macron’s office said the Russian president had agreed in principle to attend a summit with Biden aimed at de-escalating the Ukraine crisis, amid further US warnings that war is imminent.
Peskov also described the situation in the Donbas region of Ukraine as “extremely tense”, adding that Putin was due to address Russia’s security council imminently.
According to the Tass news agency, he said:
The situation is really extremely tense, and so far we do not see signs of a decrease in the level of tension. Provocations and shelling are becoming more intense, of course, this causes very deep concern.
Despite repeated Russian claims, reporters on the ground have seen no evidence of shelling by Ukrainian forces on the local population.
Updated
Lithuania’s foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis is urging the EU to move forward with sanctions on Russia, after Moscow broke its promise to move troops out of Belarus at the end of military exercises.
Russian troops stay on in Belarus violating all guarantees to withdraw. It's a clear preparation to attack Ukraine towards Kyiv & creeping annexation of Belarus: game-changer for security of NATO countries bordering Belarus: 🇱🇹🇵🇱🇱🇻! NATO reinforcements & EU sanctions are in order
— Gabrielius Landsbergis (@GLandsbergis) February 20, 2022
He is joining the EU’s 26 other foreign ministers for talks in Brussels that will be dominated by the Ukraine crisis.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who is joining the meeting, is also repeating Kyiv’s call for EU sanctions now, Politico’s Suzanne Lynch reports.
Arriving to EU foreign ministers meeting, #Ukraine's foreign minister @DmytroKuleba says US Secretary of State called him last night. He is calling on the EU to impose sanctions now — not to wait — echoing a call from President #Zelensky at Munich
— Suzanne Lynch (@suzannelynch1) February 21, 2022
While there is pretty firm consensus that the EU would impose sanctions if Russia invaded Ukraine, it is less clear the bloc will agree on restrictive measures in the current situation.
Updated
From the Guardian’s world affairs editor in Washington:
Just before 11pm, the Russian embassy in Washington has been sending journalists emails with file attachments supposedly to back up claims of mass graves in the Moscow-backed breakaway part of Luhansk.
— Julian Borger (@julianborger) February 21, 2022
Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron agreed there is a need to continue dialogue on Ukraine, reports the Interfax news agency via Reuters.
In an earlier statement on the overnight call, the Kremlin said the presidents “considered it expedient to intensify the search for solutions through diplomatic means through the foreign ministries and political advisers to the leaders of the countries participating in the Normandy format”.
Updated
Summary of key events
Here’s a round-up of the key developments in the Ukraine crisis.
- The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has invited Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden to attend a summit aimed at de-escalating the Ukraine crisis, and the leaders have agreed in principle, amid further US warnings that war is imminent. The proposal for the summit – which will proceed only if Russian does not invade Ukraine – followed a flurry of phone calls Macron made in an attempt to de-escalate tensions, including with Boris Johnson, Biden and two calls with Putin.
- The US administration signalled its willingness to work towards a diplomatic solution, but has reiterated its view that Russian forces have been ordered to proceed with an invasion of Ukraine. In a statement, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said: “We are always ready for diplomacy. We are also ready to impose swift and severe consequences should Russia instead choose war. And currently, Russia appears to be continuing preparations for a full-scale assault on Ukraine very soon.”
- European Union foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels on Monday, with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell saying the EU supports the summit proposal.
- Meanwhile, the US claims Russian forces are “creating lists of identified Ukrainians to be killed or sent to camps” in the event of an invasion, according to a leaked letter sent by the US to the UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet
- The US administration has reportedly prepared an initial package of sanctions against Russia that includes barring US financial institutions from processing transactions for major Russian banks. Reuters is reporting the measures aim to hurt the Russian economy by cutting the “correspondent” banking relationships between targeted Russian banks and US banks that enable international payments. The sanctions will be implemented only if Russia invades, despite Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier calling for sanctions to be brought in before Russia takes such action.
- Satellite images appear to show new deployments of Russian troops and armoured equipment to farms, forests and fields, with some sitting just 15km from the border with Ukraine. The images, which were captured on Sunday, show “a change in the pattern of the previously observed deployments”. Russian troops in Belarus numbering 30,000 were supposed to finish up military exercises on Sunday, but it was announced they would be extended as tensions continue to rumble. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military accused Russian-backed forces of committing 80 ceasefire violations in separatist regions throughout Sunday.
That’s all from me, Elias Visontay. Now it’s over to my colleague Jennifer Rankin to take us through the next chunk of the day.
Updated
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has accused Russia of playing an “irresponsible” game with peoples’ lives in eastern Ukraine.
Baerbock also called on Russia to come back to the negotiating table, and said that because Russia had created the “crisis” it must help solve it, according to Reuters.
Baerbock made the comments in Brussels on Monday morning as she arrived for a meeting with her EU counterparts.
Russian troops conducting military drills in Belarus will return to their bases when there is an “objective need” to do so, according to a Reuters report citing the Belarusian defence ministry.
The ministry said on Monday the troop withdrawal would depend to a large extent on a pullback of Nato forces from near the borders of Belarus and Russia.
Russian troops in Belarus numbering 30,000 were supposed to finish military exercises on Sunday, but it was announced they would be extended as tensions continue to rumble.
Updated
The European Union supports the latest attempt to arrange further talks between Washington and Moscow to find a diplomatic solution following a Russian military buildup near Ukraine’s borders, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
According to Reuters, Borrell made the comments in Brussels before a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday.
He said:
Summit meetings, at the level of leaders, at the level of ministers, whatever format, whatever way of talking and sitting at the table and trying to avoid a war, is badly needed.
We will support anything that can make diplomatic conversations the best way, the only way to look for a solution to the crisis.”
Earlier, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, invited Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden to attend a summit aimed at de-escalating the Ukraine crisis, and the leaders have agreed in principle, Macron’s office announced, amid further US warnings that war is imminent.
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Alienated civilians, ruined homes and Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline. An image gallery from photojournalist Gaëlle Girbes.
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Ukraine’s military has accused Russian-backed forces of committing 80 ceasefire violations in separatist regions throughout Sunday.
However, there were no casualties among Ukrainian forces as a result of the alleged violations, according to a statement released a short time ago.
The accusation follows days of increased shelling in eastern Ukraine, and amid the continued Russian military presence along the border the countries share and the evacuation of some residents in the separatist-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk regions to Russia.
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Russian forces are “creating lists of identified Ukrainians to be killed or sent to camps” in the event of an invasion, according to a letter sent by the US to the UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, the Washington Post has reported.
The undated letter cites Russia’s conduct in parts of Ukraine it already occupies and says recent information suggests further abuses are being planned, which have previously included “targeted killings, kidnappings/forced disappearances, unjust detentions, and the use of torture”.
The message, from the US ambassador to the UN, Sheba Crocker, warns that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would create a “human rights catastrophe” with credible information that Russian forces were also likely to “use lethal measures to disperse peaceful protests or otherwise counter peaceful exercises of perceived resistance from civilian populations”.
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Welcome to our live coverage of the Ukraine crisis. I’m Elias Visontay and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has invited Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden to attend a summit aimed at de-escalating the Ukraine crisis, and the leaders have agreed in principle, amid further US warnings that war is imminent.
The proposal for the summit – which will proceed only if Russian does not invade Ukraine – followed a flurry of phone calls Macron made in an attempt to de-escalate tensions, including with Boris Johnson, Biden and two calls with Putin.
Here are the other key events you may have missed overnight.
- The US administration signalled its willingness to work towards a diplomatic solution, but has reiterated its view that Russian forces have been ordered to proceed with an invasion of Ukraine. In a statement, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said “We are always ready for diplomacy. We are also ready to impose swift and severe consequences should Russia instead choose war. And currently, Russia appears to be continuing preparations for a full-scale assault on Ukraine very soon.”
- Meanwhile, the US claims Russian forces are “creating lists of identified Ukrainians to be killed or sent to camps” in the event of an invasion, according to a leaked letter sent by the US to the UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet
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The US administration has reportedly prepared an initial package of sanctions against Russia that includes barring US financial institutions from processing transactions for major Russian banks. Reuters is reporting the measures aim to hurt the Russian economy by cutting the “correspondent” banking relationships between targeted Russian banks and US banks that enable international payments. The sanctions will be implemented only if Russia invades, despite Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier calling for sanctions to be brought in before Russia takes such action.
- Satellite images appear to show new deployments of Russian troops and armoured equipment to farms, forests and fields, with some sitting just 15km from the border with Ukraine. The images, which were captured on Sunday, show “a change in the pattern of the previously observed deployments”. Russian troops in Belarus numbering 30,000 were supposed to finish up military exercises on Sunday, but it was announced they would be extended as tensions continue to rumble. The Kremlin’s extension will be seen as an ominous sign in Ukraine.
- The US embassy in Russia told Americans in the country to “have evacuation plans” amid reports of “threats of attacks”, escalating the growing US-Russia tensions that some are already likening to a new cold war. Russia hit back at the embassy’s alert on Sunday, which said attacks in cities such as Moscow and St Petersburg were a possibility and urged American citizens to be alert and “avoid crowds”.
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