Vladimir Putin bullied one of his top spy chiefs who looked nervous as the Russian leader told him to “speak plainly” during a televised discussion on Ukraine’s separatist regions.
One of the worst security crises in Europe in decades is unfolding as Putin ordered soldiers into Donetsk and Luhansk to "keep the peace" on Monday night.
Footage showed long military convoys heading into eastern Ukraine while satellite imagery over the past 24 hours shows several new troop and equipment deployments in western Russia along with more than 100 vehicles at a small airfield in southern Belarus, which borders Ukraine, according to US firm Maxar.
Russia held a security council meeting about Ukraine on Tuesday that was led by Putin who brought forward Sergei Naryshkin, head of the country’s foreign intelligence service, to give his opinion.
In a public dressing down, Putin on several occasions told him to “speak plainly” and looked frustrated, while Naryshkin appeared to stutter and appear uncomfortable.
At one point Naryshkin said: “We need to adopt a decision on what is being discussed today.”
Putin jumped in: “What does it mean? In the worst case? Are you suggesting we start negotiations?”
Then he smirked: “Or to recognise sovereignty?”
With Naryshkin saying “no”, Putin repeated: “Speak, speak, speak plainly.”
Putin then questioned him again when he said he “will support the proposal to recognise the states.”
The Russian president said: “Will support or do support? Speak plainly Sergei.”
Naryshkin clarified: “I’m supporting the decision. I support the proposal to incorporate Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics in the Russian Federation.”
Putin has said that Russian troops were going into eastern Ukraine to keep the peace and he has claimed that he wants to see the separatist regions as independent.
So he scolded Naryshkin saying: "We are not talking about that, we are not discussing that. We’re talking about whether to recognise their independence or not."
To which the spy chief replied: "Yes I support the proposal to recognise their independence.”
Putin's announced on Monday, that he was signing a decree on the deployment of Russian troops to the two breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Both broke away from Ukrainian government control in 2014 and proclaimed themselves independent "people's republics".
In a lengthy televised address on Monday packed with grievances against the West, a visibly angry Putin said eastern Ukraine was ancient Russian land.
Putin is demanding that Ukraine drop its long-term goal of joining the Atlantic military alliance which have been repeatedly rebuffed by Kyiv and NATO states.
"I deem it necessary to make a decision that should have been made a long time ago - to immediately recognise the independence and sovereignty of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic," Putin said.
Russia denies any plan to attack its neighbour, but it has threatened unspecified "military-technical" action unless it receives sweeping security guarantees, including a promise that Ukraine will never join NATO.
Recognition of the separatist-held areas will narrow the diplomatic options to avoid war, since it is an explicit rejection of a seven-year-old ceasefire mediated by France and Germany.
