Russian President Vladimir Putin ratcheted up tensions in the continuing Ukraine Crisis Monday.
Speaking from Moscow Monday evening, Putin said Russia was recognizing two Moscow-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine and, while on-air, signed decrees recognizing the areas.
In a lengthy speech, Putin claimed that Russia was “robbed” by the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 and said that modern Ukraine was “created” by Russia, according to a BBC report. There are concerns that by recognizing the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, and delegitimizing Ukraine’s existence, Putin is setting the stage for an invasion.
Futures tumbled ahead of Putin’s remarks, with S&P 500 futures off by 1.94% U.S. markets are closed Monday in observance of President’s Day but futures still trade.
According to a BBC report, Putin has been warned that recognition of the separatist regions would lead to sanctions.
“If there is annexation, there will be sanctions, and if there is recognition, I will put the sanctions on the table and the ministers will decide,” the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was reported as saying.
Ahead of Putin’s talk, Russia said earlier on Monday that there were no concrete plans yet for a meeting between President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin.
The two leaders had agreed in principle to a summit meeting on security and strategic stability in Europe, according to an announcement from French President Emmanuel Macron Sunday. It added that the summit would only be held if Russia does not invade Ukraine.
The prospect of a summit and a potential diplomatic resolution briefly boosted European stocks and U.S. futures early Monday. However, Russia has cast doubt on such a meeting, sending markets into reversal. The MOEX, Russia’s benchmark stock index, tumbled 10.5%.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Biden and Putin could meet if necessary but said that “it’s premature to talk about specific plans for a summit,” the Associated Press reported.
Putin also convened an unscheduled meeting of his security council Monday, state-run news agency RIA reported.
As diplomatic efforts continued so did tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
Russia’s Southern Military District reported that it destroyed two Ukrainian infantry vehicles that ventured into Russian territory early Monday, killing five people. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) also said a shell fired from Ukrainian territory destroyed a Russian border checkpoint.
Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, denied any attack took place and also denied a number of other alleged attacks. “Russia, stop your fake-producing factory now,” he said in a post on Twitter.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that Russian media has begun spreading false alarms and claims to “lay the groundwork for an invented justification for war.”
He reiterated that as he made the rounds of Sunday morning talk shows.
“Now they’re justifying the continuation of exercises, and exercises in quotation marks, that they said would end now … on the situation in Eastern Ukraine, a situation that they have created by continuing to ramp up tensions,” Blinken told CNN’s State of the Union.
(WSJ)
