Russian President Vladimir Putin chose to defy the West by ordering his troops to enter separatist territories in eastern Ukraine, provoking overnight from yesterday, Monday February 21, to this Tuesday, February 22, 2022 an emergency meeting of the security council to try to avoid a war with Kiev.
“The next few hours and days will be critical. The risk of major conflict is real and must be avoided at all costs,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo said at the start of the meeting.
As a sign of the new rise in tensions, American diplomats still in Ukraine have been moved to Poland for “security reasons”, announced US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
On Tuesday, the Russian Parliament must endorse the decision of the head of the Kremlin to deploy a “peacekeeping” force in the two regions of Donetsk and Lugansk whose independence he recognized, a “violation of sovereignty” denounced by Kiev and Westerners who have announced sanctions.
No timetable has been communicated on the military deployment, the extent of which is also unknown. But according to the West, Russia has some 150,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders.
Two mutual aid agreements between Moscow and the secessionists, for a period of ten years, must be ratified by Parliament. They provide for the deployment of “Russian military units necessary to maintain peace in the region and to ensure lasting security for the parties”.
End of a peace process under Franco-German mediation?
Yesterday evening, Monday February 21, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called “Russia’s latest acts a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state”, assuring that Kiev would not cede “a parcel” of the country and was not afraid “of anything or anyone”.
In an address to the Nation, he also called on his Western partners for “clear” and “effective” support.
The Russian decisions sign the end of a peace process under Franco-German mediation which, although regularly violated, had made it possible to stop the most violent clashes of this conflict which has killed more than 14,000 people since its outbreak in 2014, after the annexation of Crimea by Moscow.
The United States, the European Union, like NATO and London, denounced the decision of the Russian president and promised sanctions.
President Joe Biden issued an executive order yesterday, Monday, February 21, 2022, that prohibits any new investment, trading, or financing by U.S. persons to, from, or within the pro-Russian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
And the White House announced “new sanctions” for this Tuesday, February 22.
And British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to decide on this same Tuesday on a “significant package of sanctions”.
3,200 truce violations in 24 hours
In his long televised address, Vladimir Putin reiterated his accusations of “genocide” against Russians and Russian-speakers in Ukraine, and presented Ukraine as an artificial country inseparable from Russia.
The French presidency denounced the “ideological drift” and the “paranoid discourse” of Vladimir Putin.
Tensions, which have been growing steadily in recent months, have further worsened for three days with the resurgence of clashes in eastern Ukraine between forces from Kiev and the separatists.
OSCE observers recorded in 48 hours more than 3,200 new violations of the truce supposed to be in force.
Russia assured yesterday, Monday February 21, 2022, that at least 61,000 people had been “evacuated” from separatist areas to its territory.