The moves by the Russian leader were his most blatant yet in a confrontation with the West that threatens to escalate into the biggest military action in Europe since World War II.
President Vladimir V. Putin on Monday ordered troops into separatist-held eastern Ukraine and hinted at the possibility of a wider military campaign, delivering an emotional and aggrieved address to his nation that laid claim to all of Ukraine as a country “created by Russia.” After the speech, state television showed Mr. Putin at the Kremlin signing decrees recognizing the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, which were formed after Russia fomented a separatist war in eastern Ukraine in 2014. The decrees, published by the Kremlin, directed the Russian Defense Ministry to deploy troops in those regions to carry out “peacekeeping functions.” The action by Mr. Putin, who has commandeered the world’s attention with an enormous deployment of troops along Ukraine’s border in recent weeks, was the most blatant yet in a confrontation that Western officials warn could escalate into the biggest armed conflict in Europe since World War II. It was a momentous decision for Mr. Putin, a reversal of his eight-year-old strategy to use the separatist enclaves the Kremlin backed with arms and money as a means of pressuring Ukraine’s government without recognizing them outright as independent from Ukraine itself. But he continued to keep the world guessing about his next steps, signaling in his hourlong speech that his goals extended beyond the enclaves. He laid out such a broad case against Ukraine — describing its pro-Western government as a dire threat to Russia and to Russians — that he appeared to lay the groundwork for action against the rest of the country. He even went so far as to describe Ukraine’s elected pro-Western leaders as stooges and cast them as the aggressors — even though Russia has 190,000 troops, including allied separatist fighters, surrounding Ukraine. “As for those who captured and are holding onto power in Kyiv, we demand that they immediately cease military action,” Mr. Putin said at the end of his speech, referring to Ukraine’s capital. “If not, the complete responsibility for the possibility of a continuation of bloodshed will be fully and wholly on the conscience of the regime ruling the territory of Ukraine.” It was a thinly veiled threat against the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky, which denies that it is responsible for the escalating shelling on the front line between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in recent days. Russian state television has broadcast extensive reports claiming, without evidence, that Ukraine is preparing an offensive against the separatist territories. After the speech, Mr. Zelensky spoke to President Biden and called a meeting of his Security and Defense Council. The council’s secretary, Oleksiy Danilov, urged nervous Ukrainians not to trust rumors. “A great powerful information provocation is being waged against our state,” Mr. Danilov said. “But it is necessary to trust only official information.” The White House said Mr. Biden would impose sanctions against people doing business in the separatist regions, and that it would “soon announce additional measures related to today’s blatant violation of Russia’s international commitments.
