Russia is now awaiting fresh Western sanctions after President Vladimir Putin on Monday recognized two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine and ordered the deployment of troops there, deepening Western fears of a major war in Europe.
He cited Kiev's continuing refusal to follow the provisions of the Minsk agreements and Ukraine's forces continuing attacks on the Donbass republics, which intensified severely last week.
Signing a decree recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR), a visibly angry Putin in a lengthy televised address packed with grievances against the West, claimed Ukraine was ancient Russian land.
He delved into history as far back as the Ottoman empire and as recent as the tensions over Nato's eastward expansion. His demands that Ukraine drop its long-term goal of joining the Atlantic military alliance have been repeatedly rebuffed by Kyiv and Nato states.
"I deem it necessary to make a decision that should have been made a long time ago - to immediately recognise the independence and sovereignty of the DPR and the LPR," Putin said.
Claiming that modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia, he said the process started practically right after the 1917 revolution.
Then, both before and after the Great Patriotic War, Stalin incorporated in the USSR and transferred to Ukraine some lands that previously belonged to Poland, Romania and Hungary, Putin said.
“In the process, he (Stalin) gave Poland part of what was traditionally German land as compensation, and in 1954, Khrushchev took Crimea away from Russia for some reason and also gave it to Ukraine,” he added.
He went on saying that Ukraine never had a tradition of genuine statehood.
Ukraine, he said, is fully and comprehensively corroborated by archival documents, including Lenin’s harsh instructions regarding Donbass, which was actually shoved into Ukraine.
"And today the grateful progeny has overturned monuments to Lenin in Ukraine. They call it decommunization," Putin said.
Row with Nato
Saying that Nato documents consider Russia as the main threat to North Atlantic security, he said: “Ukraine will serve as a forward springboard for the strike.”
If Ukraine was to join Nato it would serve as a direct threat to the security of Russia, he added
The Donbass issue
Putin said those who embarked on the path of violence, bloodshed, lawlessness did not recognize and do not recognize any other solution to the Donbass issue, except for the military one.
“And from those who seized and hold power in Kyiv, we demand an immediate cessation of hostilities. Otherwise, all responsibility for the possible continuation of the bloodshed will be entirely on the conscience of the regime ruling on the territory of Ukraine,” he warned.
Break-up of USSR
Russia, according to him, assumed obligations to repay the entire Soviet debt in return for the newly independent states giving up part of their foreign assets.
In 1994, such agreements were reached with Ukraine, but they were not ratified by Ukraine, which he said preferred to act in such a way that in relations with Russia they had all the rights and advantages, but did not bear any obligations
"From the very first steps they began to build their statehood on the denial of everything that unites us. They tried to distort the consciousness, the historical memory of millions of people, entire generations living in Ukraine."
