Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin directed the armed forces of this country to guarantee the security of the limits of the self-proclaimed popular republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, in the rebel region of Donbass, Prensa Latina publishes.
According to a note from the Kremlin, in accordance with the request made by the Donetsk and Lugansk Defense Directorates to comply with point three of the recently signed friendship and cooperation agreement, it will be necessary to guarantee the presence of Russian forces there to maintain peace.
After the arrival in Russia of more than 80,000 civilians from the aforementioned republics, amid denunciations by the rebels of attacks carried out by the Ukrainian army, Putin yesterday held a meeting of the National Security Council, where it was decided to recognize the aforementioned republics. .
In addition, the head of state also entrusted the Foreign Ministry with holding talks with Donetsk and Lugansk for the establishment of diplomatic relations, in the midst of Kiev’s rejection of the decision to recognize those territories as sovereign.
The agreement signed the day before stipulates that the protection of the limits of the self-proclaimed republics will be carried out jointly by Russian troops and those of those regions. In the event of any safety hazard, consultations will be held, the document states.
On his side, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the West’s reaction to his country’s decision to recognize the aforementioned Ukrainian regions as expected.
Referring to the request for sanctions against Russia by the European Union and the United States, Lavrov estimated that “Western colleagues for decades had the habit of blaming everything on their country.”
The head of Russian diplomacy affirmed that his nation will guarantee the security of Donetsk and Lugansk, located in the Donbass coal region.
The Minsk agreements, signed in September 2014 and February 2015, were trampled on by the Ukrainian government, as soon as they were signed, by then President Piotr Poroshenko, the diplomat stressed.
Instead of defending the document to stop the war and preserve the territorial integrity of Ukraine, Poroshenko tried to justify himself before Parliament, the Foreign Minister noted.
Lavrov recalled that the then Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Pavel Klimkin, declared that the Minsk agreements were just a piece of paper that in no way committed the neighboring state to his postulates.