Putin is testing ‘how far he can push us all’, US tells Ukraine crisis talks

Moscow/New York: The US ambassador to the United Nations has dismissed “as nonsense” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that he is putting Russian troops in separatist areas of eastern Ukraine as peacekeepers, saying their presence is “clearly the basis for Russia’s attempt to create a pretext for a further invasion of Ukraine.”

Linda Thomas-Greenfield told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council currently under way that this move and Putin’s earlier announcement that Russia would recognise the separatist areas as “independent states” were also an “unprovoked” attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. By his actions, she said, Putin “has torn the Minsk Agreement to shreds.”

‘We are not afraid. We won’t cede anything.’ Ukrainian President Zelensky.

Thomas-Greenfield said Putin “has put before the world a choice” and it “must not look away” because “history tells us that looking the other way in the face of such hostility will be a far more costly path.”

Tensions between Moscow and Western capitals are high following weeks of United States accusations that Russia has deployed up to 150,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders for an invasion. Russia has denied it wants to invade Ukraine and accuses the West of hysteria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday officially recognised the two breakaway regions - the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic - as independent, defying Western warnings that such a step would be illegal and wreck peace negotiations.

“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.

Putin also on Monday ordered the deployment of Russian forces to the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine “keep the peace”.

“We remain open to diplomacy for a diplomatic solution, however, allowing new bloodbath in the Donbas is something we do not intend to do,” Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council.

China’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun said Beijing welcomed and encouraged every effort for a diplomatic solution to the crisis. He called on all parties to exercise restraint.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier accused Russia of wrecking peace efforts and ruled out making any territorial concessions in an address to the nation on Tuesday.

Zelensky spoke after Russia’s decision to formally recognise the two Moscow-backed regions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, the breakaway “republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk, as independent and send troops to the region, accelerating a crisis that the West fears could unleash a major war.

Earlier, after chairing a meeting of his security council, Zelensky accused Russia of violating Ukraine sovereign territory and said it could mean Moscow pulling the plug on the peace talks aimed at ending the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announcing plans to sign a decree on eastern Ukraine regions.

Zelensky said he wanted to solve the crisis through diplomacy but that his country was ready to dig in for the long haul.

“We are committed to the peaceful and diplomatic path, we will follow it and only it,” Zelensky said. “But we are on our own land, we are not afraid of anything and anybody, we owe nothing to no one, and we will give nothing to no one.”

“We won’t cede anything,” said a defiant Zelensky.

“It’s not Feb 2014, but Feb 2022,” he said, in a likely reference to Ukraine’s loss of Crimea to the Russians.

“It’s important right now to see who our true friends are,” Zelensky said. He added that Ukraine was expecting “clear and effective” steps from its allies to act against Russia and called for an emergency summit with the leaders of Russia, Germany and France.

Tanks roll

Earlier on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his Defence Ministry to dispatch troops to “maintain peace” in Ukraine east, in a significant escalation of the Kremlin-driven crisis.

A Reuters witness saw columns of military vehicles including tanks on the outskirts of Donetsk, the capital of one of two breakaway regions. There were about five tanks in a column on the edge of the city and two more in another part of town.

No insignia were visible, but the appearance of the tanks came hours after Putin signed friendship treaties with the two separatist regions and ordered Russian troops to deploy on what Moscow called a peacekeeping operation.

Russia has deployed troops to its ally Belarus for sweeping joint military drills that run through Sunday, fuelling Western concerns that Moscow could use the exercise to attack Ukraine from the north.Credit: AP

World reacts

Leaders lined up to denounce Putin’s words and actions. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Russia should “unconditionally withdraw” from Ukrainian territory and cease to threaten its neighbours.

“It is important that like-minded countries who denounce this sort of behaviour...stick together,” he said.

US President Joe Biden signed an executive order to prohibit trade and investment between US individuals and the two Ukrainian breakaway regions recognised as independent by Russia on Monday, the White House said.

Included is 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”.

One administration official told reporters that additional measures would be announced on Wednesday, but those were separate from a wider set of sanctions that Washington has promised to implement with its allies if Russia invades Ukraine.

“This isn’t a further invasion since it’s territory that they’ve already occupied,” that official said.

Bloomberg has reported the US is moving its Ukraine embassy staff out of the country and into Poland for security reasons - they were moved out of Kyiv to Lviv last week. They are expected to return tomorrow if the Russian invasion doesn’t occur.

Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne has directed all of Australia’s embassy staff to leave Ukraine for Poland and Romania, temporarily closing the office that was set up in Lvivi last week after embassy staff left Kyiv.

Following Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who earlier said claims the troops were peace keepers was “nonsense,” Paye said Putin’s recognition of the separatist states “had no validity under rule of law” and that sanctions would follow.

She called on all Australians remaining in Ukraine to leave immediately.

Sanctions

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Zelensky a Russian invasion was possible within hours or days and Britain would explore sending further defensive support to Ukraine and announce sanctions on Russia.

“Outlining his grave concern at recent developments in the region, the Prime Minister told President Zelensky that he believed an invasion was a real possibility in the coming hours and days,” Johnson’s office said.

He denounced Putin’s move to recognise the regions as independent as a “breach of international law”.

“It’s a ... flagrant violation of the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine,” Johnson said.

British Foreign Minister Liz Truss said she had agreed with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell that Britain and the EU would coordinate to deliver swift sanctions against Russia.

“We agreed [Britain] and [the EU] will coordinate to deliver swift sanctions against Putin’s regime and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine,” Truss said on Twitter following a call with Borrell.

Putin speech

Earlier on Tuesday AEDT, Putin signed a decree recognising the two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent entities, upping the ante in a crisis the West fears could unleash a war.

In a lengthy televised address, Putin, looking visibly angry, described Ukraine as an integral part of Russia.

Sweeping through more than a century of history, he painted today’s Ukraine as a modern construct that is inextricably linked to Russia. He charged that Ukraine had inherited Russia’s historic lands and after the Soviet collapse was used by the West to contain Russia.

He brushed off Western warnings that such a step would be illegal and would kill off peace negotiations and that he was confident the Russian people would support his decision.

Putin sought to justify his decision in the pre-recorded speech by blaming NATO for the crisis and calling the US-led alliance an existential threat to his country.

Pretext to invade

Separately, Moscow said Ukrainian military saboteurs had tried to enter Russian territory in armed vehicles leading to five deaths, an accusation dismissed as “fake news” by Kyiv.

Both developments fit a pattern repeatedly predicted by Western governments, who accuse Russia of preparing to use a false flag, or fabricate a pretext to invade Ukraine, by blaming Kyiv for attacks and relying on pleas for help from separatist proxies.

Washington says Russia has now massed a force numbering 169,000-190,000 troops in the region, including pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, and could invade other parts of the country within days.

Reuters, Bloomberg, AP

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