Putin Calls Ukraine a US Colony With a ‘Puppet Regime’
Russian President Vladimir Putin falsely called Ukraine a U.S. colony with a “puppet regime.”
The Russian leader made this comment while delivering a speech on Monday declaring the regions of Donbas and Luhansk in Eastern Ukraine as independent. The remark comes ahead of an expected Russian invasion of Ukraine. Donbas and Luhansk consist of pro-Russian separatists.
Ukraine was part of the former Soviet Union until the latter’s collapse in 1991, when Ukraine became a sovereign country. In 2014, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea. Reportedly, there are currently as many as 190,000 Russian troops along the Ukrainian border.
The United States has warned against Putin recognizing Donbas and Luhansk as independent republics.
On Feb. 16, in response to the Russian government passing a resolution calling on Putin to recognize those Ukrainian regions as independent, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said:
The Russian Duma has stated that it plans to send to President Putin an appeal to recognize the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics as “independent.” To be clear: Kremlin approval of this appeal would amount to the Russian government’s wholesale rejection of its commitments under the Minsk agreements, which outline the process for the full political, social, and economic reintegration of those parts of Ukraine’s Donbas region controlled by Russia-led forces and political proxies since 2014. Enactment of this resolution would further undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, constitute a gross violation of international law, call into further question Russia’s stated commitment to continue to engage in diplomacy to achieve a peaceful resolution of this crisis, and necessitate a swift and firm response from the United States in full coordination with our Allies and partners.
