“In a situation where we are facing a humanitarian catastrophe, seeing tens of thousands of refugees, women, children forced to leave their homes, the only way out is to take this decision,” Russian State Duma speaker said on Tuesday.
QUICK FACTS:
- Russian officials are saying that Moscow’s decision to recognize the sovereignty of the two breakaway Donbass republics was the only feasible way to end the bloody conflict in the region, according to RT News.
- Russian State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin wrote on his Telegram channel on Tuesday that acknowledging the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) was the only route out of what he claims was fast becoming a humanitarian crisis for Russia.
- “Recognition of the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics and ratification of treaties on friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance should stop the slaughter, the death of our citizens and compatriots living there,” the speaker of the lower house wrote.
- “In a situation where we are facing a humanitarian catastrophe, seeing tens of thousands of refugees, women, children forced to leave their homes, the only way out is to take this decision,” Volodin added.
- Russia has also said it supports peaceful resolution of any conflicts, including the one in Southeastern Ukraine, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko claiming on Tuesday that Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is “always supporting the peaceful settlement of any conflicts, including the conflict in the southeast of Ukraine, and it seems to us the decision today will promote exactly such peaceful scenario. We hope so.”
RUSSIANS POINT TO PAST “GENOCIDE” IN DONBASS:
- According to Volodin, the Donbass republics were the location of a massacre of ethnic Russians, described earlier by Putin as a “genocide,” RT notes, although such a claim is not acknowledged by any international body.
BACKGROUND:
- Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday recognizing the DPR and LPR as sovereign countries, RT notes.
- The decision came as Ukrainian forces dramatically escalated their attacks on the Donbass republics last week, sending tens of thousands of civilians fleeing to safety in Russia’s Rostov region, although the Biden admin. claimed the attacks were fake and part of a provocation planned by Moscow to justify intervention in Ukraine, Sputnik reports.
- The two states, located in the Donbass region, broke away from Kiev in 2014 following the events of the Maidan when violent street protests toppled the government and remained unrecognized by any UN nation until this week, RT explained.
- Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he was imposing the first tranche of economic sanctions against the Russian Federation in response to Moscow’s recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and deployment of peacekeeping forces to the Donbass, according to Sputnik.
- “Who in the Lord’s name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belonged to his neighbors?” Biden asked. “This is a flagrant violation of international law and it demands a firm response from the international community.”
