Area held
by Russia-
backed
separatists
Area held by
Russia-backed
separatists
Area
held by
Russia-
backed
separa-
tists
On Monday evening, after Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the legitimacy of the breakaway territories of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine as independent, he ordered what he called “peacekeeping” troops into the region, only parts of which are controlled by pro-Moscow separatists.
Story continues below advertisement
Video from Feb. 22 showed military vehicles on the edge of Donetsk, one of two separatist areas in eastern Ukraine that Russia recognized as independent. (Reuters)
The Kremlin said Tuesday that its recognition of the two separatist enclaves covers areas controlled by the Ukrainian government. NATO and Western nations are braced for a full-scale invasion into Ukraine.
Earlier on Monday, Putin called a meeting of Russia’s Security Council and grilled members on the merits of recognizing these separatist areas.
Vladimir Putin admonished his head of foreign intelligence during a carefully orchestrated, prerecorded meeting of the Russian Security Council. (The Washington Post)
After that meeting, Putin aired an angry, prerecorded speech that recognized the sovereignty of the regions, where fighting first broke out in 2014, and rejected Ukraine’s legitimacy as an independent nation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the West and referred to Ukraine as “a colony” in a televised address on Feb. 21. (The Washington Post)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later responded to Putin’s speech in a televised address calling for a “peaceful, diplomatic solution” to the situation. “We are on our land,” he added. “We owe nothing to anybody.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave a late night, emergency address on Feb. 22, after Russia recognized the two breakaway regions in east Ukraine. (AP)
Putin’s screed came after a sharp increase in violence in eastern Ukraine over the weekend. Civilians in Ukrainian-controlled parts of the east said they thought their homes were being targeted by separatists to provoke a response from Ukrainian forces. U.S. officials have repeatedly warned that Russian troops might stage an attack that appeared to come from Ukrainian government forces to justify an invasion.
“We have no doubt in our minds where this shelling is coming from and who is firing it,” Diana Levenets said, pointing to the hills where the separatist forces are posted. “We can literally see where it’s coming from.”
After years of peace, villagers in Ukraine’s Donbas region are enduring a sharp increase in shelling from separatists and fear a Russian invasion could be next. (Whitney Leaming, Erin Patrick O’Connor, Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
Meanwhile, leaders of the separatist areas announced a mass evacuation of civilians, saying they knew of plans for an imminent attack by Ukrainian forces. Buses were escorted by the head of police from Donbas to Rostov, a city in southwestern Russia.
The increase in violence in the east began on Thursday, with shelling from Russian-backed separatists that put civilians in the crossfire.
A Washington Post photographer captured images of a badly damaged kindergarten in Stanytsia Luhanska. No children were harmed, but three adults were injured, according to the Ukrainian military. The kindergarten director describes hustling the children to hide from the shelling in this .
Story continues below advertisement
Although they have increased in intensity, clashes between Ukrainian soldiers and the Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine are nothing new. More than 3,000 civilians have been killed there since 2014, according to the United Nations.
Despite military aid from Western countries and newly delivered equipment, the 209,000 active-duty Ukrainian fighters face a potential battle against Russia. In the trenches, the soldiers acknowledge the challenges ahead, should Putin launch a full-scale invasion.
“Our defense is our job,” Oleksander, a battalion commander, told The Post. “But whoever helps us, we’ll be grateful for it.” He took The Post into the trenches where his troops were preparing for a possible Russian invasion.
Follow a battalion commander through the trenches of eastern Ukraine as he prepares his troops for a possible Russian invasion. (Whitney Shefte, Whitney Leaming, Erin Patrick O’Connor/The Washington Post)The Washington Post’s Mary Ilyushina observes military drills with Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko on Feb. 17. (Mary Ilyushina, Jason Aldag/The Washington Post)
As tensions escalated in Ukraine’s east, Russia also was conducting military exercises in Moscow-allied Belarus, which is to Ukraine’s north. Belarus’s southern border is some 50 miles from Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.
Story continues below advertisement
Both countries said Russian troops would withdraw when the exercises ended Feb. 20. When that deadline arrived, both announced that Russian forces would stay in Belarus indefinitely.
Russia started the active phase of military drills in Belarus on Feb. 10. (Reuters)
The strains between Russia and Ukraine involve land borders and strategic influence. Ukraine once was a part of the Soviet Union, a fact that Putin used to question the legitimacy of the country’s independence. He sees Ukraine, which has been an independent nation since 1991, as an integral part of greater Russia.
Boundary of former
Soviet Union
Boundary of former
Soviet Union
Boundary of former
Soviet Union
He has demanded that Ukraine not join NATO because such a move would increase the alliance’s footprint on Russia’s borders.
Story continues below advertisement
In 2014, Russian military forces annexed Crimea on the Black Sea, after Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution ousted a pro-Russian government for a Western-leaning one. Putin backed separatists in the eastern industrial regions that are the flash point of the current actions. On Tuesday, forces entered those eastern regions, and Putin called on Ukraine to accept that Crimea is Russian territory, a continuation of his long push to return Ukraine to Russia’s fold.
Percentage of population that identified Russian as their first language
(2001 census, most recent data available)
Separatist-
controlled
area
Percentage of population that identified
Russian as their first language
(2001 census, most recent data available)
Separatist-
controlled
area
Percentage of population that identified Russian as their first language
(2001 census, most recent data )
Separatist-
controlled
area
Ruby Mellen reported from Washington. Whitney Shefte and Michael Robinson Chavez reported from Novotroitske, Ukraine. Whitney Leaming and Salwan Georges reported from Stanytsia Luhanska, Ukraine.
