The Kremlin said two Moscow-backed separatist territories in Ukraine had asked Vladimir Putin to “repel the aggression of the Ukrainian regime”, heightening expectations that Russia is poised to launch a full invasion.
Russian newswires published letters on Wednesday in which the leaders of the breakaway statelets in the eastern border area of Donbas asked Putin to use force to protect them from “ongoing military aggression” by Ukraine.
The White House said it was an example of the kind of “false flag” operations that Russia’s president was using to create the pretext for a large invasion. Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat, called it “a very dangerous additional step against Ukraine’s sovereignty that would put thousands of lives at risk.”