Putin tells Russians security is non-negotiable
Amid reports of more Russian troops moving closer towards Ukraine’s borders, President Vladimir Putin has insisted that Russia’s interests and security are non-negotiable.
He gave a video address, hours after US President Joe Biden warned of “the beginning of a Russian invasion”.
Russia was always “open for direct and honest dialogue”, he said, but he had full confidence in the military.
The West has announced a range of sanctions on Russian interests.
“We’ve cut off Russia’s government from Western financing,” Mr Biden said after Russia’s upper house of parliament authorized the president to send troops into two parts of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
Mr Putin earlier declared that Russia had recognized the independence of the so-called people’s republics of Luhansk and Donetsk, ordering Russian troops into the areas and tearing up a peace accord with Ukraine.
His claim that they would go to “maintain peace” was derided as nonsense by the West. Mr Biden said “to put it simply, Russia just announced that it is carving out a big chunk of Ukraine”.
Despite Mr Putin’s insistence that he was still open to diplomacy, France’s foreign minister and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken both canceled planned meetings with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
It is not yet clear if any Russian troops have yet crossed the border into Ukraine. However, US satellite imagery has highlighted several new troop and equipment deployments in western Russia, and more than 100 vehicles at an airfield in Belarus near Ukraine’s border.
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