21.02.2022, Moscow.
The Security Council of the Russian Federation discussed the issue of recognizing the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s republics on February 21, Rossa Primavera News Agency informed.
From the very beginning, Russia has done everything possible to peacefully resolve the conflict in the DPR and LPR. Russian President Vladimir Putin said this at a meeting of the Security Council.
He recalled that after the unconstitutional coup d’état in Ukraine in 2014, some of its residents, including those in Crimea and the southeast of the country, did not support its outcome. It was then that the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics were established.
“The Kiev’s authorities twice conducted military punitive operations on these territories. Apparently, we are witnessing the aggravation of the situation for the third time,” Putin noted.
He expressed confidence that Ukraine was not going to implement the Minsk agreements.
“They have publicly stated this many times. Both at the highest state level, and at the level of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and at the level of the Secretary of the Security Council [National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine],” the president recalled.
According to him, the aggravation of the situation in the DPR and LPR is inextricably linked to global security problems – both in the world as a whole and on the European continent in particular.
He is convinced that Western countries need Kyiv as a tool to counteract Russia. According to the Russian leader, it poses a threat to Russia, including because of the likelihood of Ukraine joining NATO.
“There is Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, from which it is clear that all countries of the alliance must fight on the side of one of its members if it is subjected to any aggression,” Putin explained.
“Since no one recognizes the will of the people of Crimea and Sevastopol, and Ukraine insists that this is its territory, we have a real threat that they will begin to reclaim this, as they consider ‘their territory’ – they wrote this in their documents. Then the whole North Atlantic alliance will have to get involved in these events,” expressed his fear.
He recalled that in 2008 there was a memorandum signed in Bucharest that envisaged Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO.
Members of the Security Council supported the idea of recognizing the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.
Earlier, the heads of the LPR and DPR, Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin, had asked the Russian president to recognize the independence of the republics in Donbass.
On February 21, while attempting to cross the Russian border, the Russian military liquidated a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group, including two BMPs from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
