President Vladimir Putin today signed the decree establishing Russia’s recognition of the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.
In a one-hour televised intervention, the president announced that friendship, cooperation and assistance agreements between Moscow and those territories of the Ukrainian region of Donbass will also be approved.
Putin denounced that the Kiev government does not respect, nor will it respect, the Minsk agreements and expressed that, as on previous occasions, it is trying to organize a lightning war in the east of the country, with the use of heavy weapons and the murder of civilians.
He emphasized that while this is happening, the civilized world —as it proclaims itself— is not interested in this murder. “How long can this situation be tolerated? We have tried to find a peaceful solution for many years, but nothing changes. They do not recognize another way out of the situation in Donbass”, he pointed out.
The head of state drew attention to the constant pumping of modern weapons, trainers from the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) into that territory in recent times.
He also noted how the country has become a frequent site of military maneuvers by the West and expressed concern that Ukraine could become a platform for attacks on Russia.
Russia has information that Ukraine’s accession to NATO and the deployment of Alliance facilities there is a predetermined matter, he said.
He noted that under such a scenario, the level of military threats to Russia will increase dramatically, many times over. “The danger of a sudden attack on our country will multiply,” he emphasized.
He explained that with the support of Kiev, NATO forces could control the Russian security forces and their missiles could reach the entire European part of the Eurasian nation in a few minutes.
“We are not going to sit idly by,” said the president, who underlined Russia’s responsibility for regional security.
In this sense, he recalled that in December 2021 Moscow published two documents of possible long-term legal security commitment agreements for Washington and NATO.
He warned that the proposals pose three key priorities: the non-expansion of the Alliance, the prohibition of the deployment of attack weapons that threaten its territory from neighboring countries, and the return of the bloc’s infrastructure in Europe to its position in 1997, when it was signed the Russia-NATO Founding Act.
