Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree recognizing the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, escalating Western fears of an imminent invasion of Ukraine.
Putin made the announcement in an address broadcast on state television Monday evening in which he also questioned Ukraine's statehood and described the country's leadership as under the control of the West.
The Kremlin leader had earlier held a Security Council meeting to discuss the issue of whether the separatist areas of Donetsk and Luhansk should be recognized as independent states.
All of the participants, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, spoke in favour.President Vladimir Putin railed against Ukraine in a televised address on Monday, saying that neo-Nazis were on the rise, oligarchic clans were rife and that the ex-Soviet country was a U.S. colony with a puppet regime.
Russia's rouble, already under pressure from a vast Russian military buildup near Ukraine, tumbled to new weeks-long lows as he spoke from behind a wooden office desk flanked by Russian tricolour flags.
He described eastern Ukraine as ancient Russian lands and modern Ukraine as a state created by the Bolsheviks after the 1917 revolution.
Putin described Ukraine as a state created by Russia under the rule of communist leader Vladimir Lenin, adding that Lenin statues had been destroyed there as a sign of "decommunization," referring to the tearing down of communist monuments since independence. "We are ready to show Ukraine what real decommunization is," he said.
Ukraine, Putin continued, had never had "real statehood" but had rather copied models to create a nation state.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Ukraine could be planning to develop nuclear weapons. "We know that there have already been reports that Ukraine wants to make its own nuclear weapons. This is no empty boast," Putin said. "Ukraine in fact still has Soviet nuclear technology and delivery systems for such weapons."
President said that NATO had completely ignored Russia's security demands and accused the West of trying to kick Moscow's main proposals for security guarantees into the long grass.
The Kremlin chief also accused NATO of "impudent antagonism" over Ukraine, saying that the West wanted to use Ukraine as what he called a "theatre of possible hostilities."
Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed during a televised address that ethnic Russians living in eastern Ukraine are being murdered in large numbers, without offering any evidence to support the allegations.
"The so-called civilised world prefers to ignore the genocide committed by Kiev in the Donbass," he said on Monday evening, adding that some 4 million people were affected.
The Kremlin leader first used the word "genocide" in connection to the Donbass at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz last Tuesday.
While Scholz initially left Putin's remark unchallenged, he did subsequently reject Putin's claim as "wrong."
The US recently said it believed that Russia was likely to use the accusation of genocide as a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin has always vehemently denied having any plans for an attack.
