Putin orders Russian troops into eastern Ukraine to 'maintain peace'
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered forces to “maintain peace” in separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, hours after the Kremlin recognized the area’s independence.
The announcement raised fears that an invasion was imminent, if not already underway.
The Kremlin decree, spelled out in an order signed by Putin, left unclear when, or even whether, troops would enter Ukraine. But it brought swift promises of new sanctions from the US and other Western nations and underscored the steep challenges they face in staving off a military conflict they have portrayed as near-inevitable.
In Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is holding a late-night meeting of his security council to discuss the fast-moving situation. The meeting is expected to continue into the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Ukraine's ambassador in London said he believed the Russian "incursion has already started." In an interview with the BBC Vadym Prystaiko said "the Russians are entering as we speak."
The Kremlin's Monday evening announcement came just hours after Putin, in a rambling, fact-bending discourse on European history, recognized the independence of the eastern separatist regions, paving the way to provide them military support and antagonizing Western leaders who regard such a move as an unjust breach of world order.
Meanwhile British Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a call with President Zelenskyy on Monday evening in which he "strongly condemned" Russia's decision to recognise the breakaway republics and said Britain might send more military support to Ukraine.
"He told President Zelenskyy that the UK had already drawn up sanctions to target those complicit in the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, and that those measures would come
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