LAST UPDATE | 23 Feb 2022
THE SEPARATIST LEADERS of two breakaway regions of Ukraine have asked Russian forces to enter their territories to help repel ”the aggression of the Ukrainian armed forces,” according to a Kremlin spokesperson tonight.
Russia’s Tass news agency reported the comments from the self-styled leaders of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Fears are being raised that the reported requests could be used as the final pretext to a Russian attack on Ukraine after President Vladimir Putin ordered his defence ministry to begin what he described as ‘peacekeeping’ functions in the two regions on Monday.
Earlier this evening Ukraine’s parliament imposed a national state of emergency aimed at helping to forge a response to the threat of a Russian invasion.
The measure was overwhelmingly approved on the same day that Moscow began to evacuate its Kyiv embassy and Washington stepped up its warnings about the chances of an all-out Russian attack.
“The situation is difficult but remains completely under our control,” Ukraine’s security and defence council secretary Oleksiy Danilov told lawmakers ahead of the vote.
The state of emergency allows Ukraine’s regional governments to adopt heightened security measures that range from tighter ID and vehicle checks to more stringent policing.
They apply to all parts of Ukraine except for the two eastern separatist regions where a deadly insurgency has killed more than 14,000 people in the past two years.
Putin’s recognition of the eastern provinces’ independence on Monday sharply ramped up fears of an imminent war.
Putin has signed decrees allowing the deployment of Russian “peacekeeping” forces into rebel territories to back up the independence claims.
The Russian leader said yesterday that his decision to send in the troops will “depend on the situation on the ground”.
But Russian state television has been filled with allegations from rebel leaders in the past few days accusing Ukrainian soldiers of launching deadly and unprovoked attacks against civilians.
Ukraine firmly denies the allegations.
The rapidly escalating tensions have forced US officials to ramp up their warning about the threat of an imminent attack from at least 150,000 Russian forces believed to have encircled Ukraine.
Cyberattack
Ukraine is also being hit with a “massive” cyberattack, with the main websites of the Ukrainian government and foreign ministry refusing to open.
Deputy Prime Minister Mykailo Fyodorov said the attack began in the late afternoon and affected several banks as well as official websites, without specifying its origin.
The official site of Ukraine’s cabinet of ministers and the foreign ministry refused to open when AFP tried to access it on Wednesday.
Fyodorov said the functioning sites had managed to “switch traffic to a different provider to minimise the damage”.
The cyberattack comes as the EU has called a snap summit to discuss the ongoing Ukraine-Russia crisis, with the meeting set to take place tomorrow evening.
In a letter to EU leaders, European Council President Charles Michel said that the summit was being held in response to Russia’s “aggressive actions” against Ukraine.
“It is important that we continue to be united and determined and jointly define our collective approach and actions,” he said in the letter published on Wednesday.
“Therefore, I would like to invite you for a special European Council (summit) on Thursday 24 February, which will take place in person in Brussels and start at 20:00 [7pm Irish time].
“The use of force and coercion to change borders has no place in the 21st century.
“The aggressive actions by the Russian Federation violate international law and the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. They also undermine the European security order,” he said.
Ukrainian mobilisation
It follows on from Ukraine mobilising its military reserves and Russia evacuating its Kyiv embassy today as fears reached a fever pitch of a full-scale conflict breaking out in eastern Europe.
Putin has defied an avalanche of international sanctions to put his forces on stand-by to occupy and defend two rebel-held areas of eastern Ukraine.
In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has put more than 200,000 reservists on notice that they will receive summons to return to their units.
Ukraine also urged its approximately three million citizens living in Russia to leave and prepared to declare a national state of emergency.
“We are united in believing that the future of European security is being decided right now, here in our home, in Ukraine,” Zelensky said during a joint media appearance with the visiting leaders of Poland and Lithuania.
“Ukraine needs security guarantees. Clear, specific, and immediate.”
He added: “I believe that Russia must be among those countries giving clear security guarantees.”
Putin said that Moscow was ready to look for “diplomatic solutions” amid raging tensions with the West over Ukraine but stressed that the country’s interests were non-negotiable.
“Our country is always open for direct and honest dialogue, for the search for diplomatic solutions to the most complex problems,” Putin said in a video address to mark the Defender of the Fatherland Day, a public holiday in Russia.
But he added: “The interests of Russia, the security of our citizens, are non-negotiable for us.”
Putin spoke after parliament’s upper house, the Federation Council, gave him unanimous approval to deploy “peacekeepers” to two breakaway Ukrainian regions now recognised by Moscow as independent, and potentially into other parts of Ukraine.
In the video address, Putin congratulated the country’s men and said he was certain of the “professionalism” of the Russian military and that they will stand up for the country’s national interests.
He praised the battle-readiness of the Russian army and said the country would continue to develop state-of-the-art weapons.
Western officials have been warning for weeks the Russian leader has been preparing an all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Sanctions
This evening, Joe Biden announced that the US would join Germany in imposing sanctions on the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
“I have directed my administration to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG and its corporate officers,” Biden said in a statement. The measure, targeting one of energy-rich Russia’s biggest geostrategic initiatives, comes after Germany announced it was halting the controversial project on Tuesday.
Yesterday, Biden announced tough new sanctions against Russia for “beginning” an invasion of Ukraine but said there was still time to avoid war.
Japan and Australia followed suit today with their own stringent penalties for Moscow and individuals connected with the aggression against Ukraine, with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison targeting members of Russia’s security council for “behaving like thugs and bullies.”
Biden’s address followed a wave of sanctions announced by the European Union and UK, after Putin recognised the self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk rebel republics.
The EU has slapped sanctions on the Russian defence minister, a senior advisor to Vladimir Putin and on the hundreds of Russian legislators who voted in favour of recognising the independence of the separatist regions in south-east Ukraine.
These sanctions include asset freezes and a ban from travelling within the EU and will take effect later today. The EU has said that it is only the first step and further sanctions will be ramped up if Russia launches an attack or moves troops further into Ukraine.
But Moscow said the sanctions regime would backfire.
The US-led sanctions will “hurt the global financial and energy markets,” Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, said in a Facebook post, adding that ordinary Americans will “feel the full consequences of rising prices.”
The Russian Ambassador to Ireland said that sanctions against Russia will cause a knock-on impact on EU member states.
Speaking to The Journal, Yury Filatov said that any move to impose sanctions on Russia would cause a destabilisation of the economy across EU member states.
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said this morning that he is concerned about security in Europe and about any possible effect that war would have on the growth and economic performances of Ireland and the EU.
The Fine Gael minister said exports to Russia account for approximately 1% of Ireland’s national income, while imports from Russia account for approximately 0.5%.
“But inside that 0.5% there are sectors that do have a little bit more of a reliance on Russia than other sectors would, so it’s understandable that they would raise concerns regarding what could happen,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has also confirmed that the Irish Government is responding to requests for aid by Ukraine.
A spokesperson for the Department said that medical items have been offered to Ukraine.
“Some medical items have been offered and we are working with the HSE and the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) with a view to finalising the offer and transport arrangements,” the spokesperson said.
The UK’s Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that it is “highly likely” that Putin will launch a full scale invasion of Ukraine and attack Kyiv.
Asked if the Russian leader would move on the capital Kyiv, she said: “We think it’s highly likely that that is in his plans.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that Putin no longer accepted Ukraine’s independence under international law.
“President Putin in his speech [on Monday] declared in a sense the negation of Ukraine as a sovereign country,” he told reporters after talks with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock in Berlin.
Baerbock accused Putin of “lying” about his intentions in Ukraine in talks with Western leaders in recent days.
“When you do the opposite of what you said a week ago then you didn’t tell the truth or, in plain German: you lied,” she told reporters.
© – AFP, 2022 additional reporting from Céimin Burke and Tadgh McNally.
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