Russia recognizes the sovereignty of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine over the entire Lugansk and Donetsk regions, not just the areas under their control, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday. A new twist in the Ukrainian crisis which raises fears that the Kremlin could help the separatists to seize the territories which escape them.
→ MAINTENANCE. Ukrainian crisis: “Vladimir Putin rewrites the official national novel”
“We have recognized the independence of these republics, that is to say all their fundamental documents, including their Constitution. And in the Constitution are inscribed the borders of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions as they were when they were part of Ukraine”, underlined the Russian president in front of journalists. He said, however, that the exact borders should be drawn in talks between the two breakaway republics and Ukraine.