In an address in commemoration of Defender of the Fatherland Day, and in a press conference with visiting Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday elaborated on Russia’s actions around the Ukraine crisis.
• Putin said there is still a peaceful way out of the current crisis, that would require Ukraine becoming a neutral state and renouncing membership in NATO. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Feb. 19 remarks at the Munich Security Conference stating Ukraine could become a nuclear-armed power now makes it urgent, Putin said. “We would have a heavily armed ‘anti-Russia’ next door. This is absolutely unacceptable, in particular now that Ukraine’s current leadership has declared its nuclear ambitions,” Putin stressed.
• With the two chambers of Russia’s Federal Assembly, the State Duma and Federation Council, approving the new treaty agreements with the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, and authorizing Russian use of force outside its borders, Russia stands ready to send troops to D.P.R. and L.P.R., if so requested. Moscow will provide “corresponding aid, including military aid,” he stated, but he added that “I did not say that the forces will go there right now after our meeting here.” The timing will depend on the “actual situation on the ground.… It is impossible to predict any specific scenario of possible actions yet.” Screeching headlines in the Western media notwithstanding, there is at this time no confirmation of the presence of Russian forces in the D.P.R. and L.P.R.
