Key UNSC meet under way as Russia recognises Ukraine separatist region independence

A key UN Security Council meet is underway after Russian President Vladimir Putin recognised the independence of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine and ordered Russian troops to maintain the peace there. This has resulted in an exponential surge in tensions in the region. Ukrainian UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya says in a letter to his Russian counterpart that Kyiv is requesting the urgent meeting because Putin's actions violate Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, the UN Charter and a 2014 UN General Assembly resolution. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered forces Monday to maintain peace in separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, hours after the Kremlin recognised the area's independence. The announcement raised fears that an invasion was imminent, if not already underway.

The Kremlin decree, spelled out in an order signed by Putin, left unclear when, or even whether, troops would enter Ukraine. But it brought swift promises of new sanctions from the US and other Western nations and underscored the steep challenges they face in staving off a military conflict they have portrayed as near-inevitable.

The US and other nations scrambled to respond, calling for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday night. The White House issued an executive order to restrict investment and trade in the separatist regions, and additional measures likely sanctions were to be announced Tuesday. Those sanctions are independent of what Washington has prepared in the event of a Russian invasion, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity.

The developments came amid a spike in skirmishes in the eastern regions that Western powers believe Russia could use as a pretext for an attack on the western-looking democracy that has defied Moscow's attempts to pull it back into its orbit. Putin justified his decision in a far-reaching, pre-recorded speech blaming NATO for the current crisis and calling the US-led alliance an existential threat to Russia. Sweeping through more than a century of history, he painted today's Ukraine as a modern construct that is inextricably linked to Russia. He charged that Ukraine had inherited Russia's historic lands and after the Soviet collapse was used by the West to contain Russia.

"I consider it necessary to take a long-overdue decision: To immediately recognise the independence and sovereignty of Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic," Putin said.

Afterward he signed decrees recognizing the Donetsk and Luhansk regions' independence, eight years after fighting erupted between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces, and called on lawmakers to approve measures paving the way for military support. Until now, Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of supporting the separatists, but Moscow has denied that, saying that Russians who fought there were volunteers.