World reacts to Russia's recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk

PanARMENIAN.Net - The UN Security Council on Monday, February 22 accused Russia of "violating international law" following Russian President Vladimir Putin's move to recognize Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine as "independent."

At an emergency meeting in New York, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said that Russia's "attack" on Ukraine "is unprovoked and violates international law."

Thomas-Greenfield shot back against Putin's claim that the troops were on a "peacekeeping" mission, Deutsche Welle reports.

Immediately after Putin's recognition, the White House responded by levying a number of sanctions on the region. President Joe Biden signed an executive order that prohibits new investment, trade and financing by U.S. persons to, from, or in the "Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic regions of Ukraine", CNBC said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, meanwhile, that the United Kingdom will immediately impose economic sanctions on Russia following Moscow’s moves in eastern Ukraine. The sanctions, Johnson told reporters, would be “targeted not just at entities in Donbas and Luhansk and Donetsk, but in Russia itself – targeting Russian economic interests as hard as we can.”

Putin will find he has “gravely miscalculated” if Russia invades Ukraine, he added, before warning that Moscow appeared to be bent on a full-scale invasion, Al Jazeera reported.

The special representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe’s chairman-in-office in Ukraine has said Putin’s decision to recognize Ukraine’s breakaway republics is a source of “deep regret”.

“This decision … can be seen contradicting the Minsk agreements in different ways, including the aim of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions being part of Ukraine with a special status,” Ambassador Mikko Kinnunen said in a statement, citing agreements aimed at ending the war in eastern Ukraine.

NATO and European Union member states cannot allow Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity to go unchecked, Spain’s defence minister says.

“Russia must know the firmness of EU and NATO is absolute and total,” Margarita Robles said in an interview to radio station COPE. “We cannot allow a violation of international law nor the attack to Ukraine’s territorial integrity, which is what has happened, without a doubt.”

Greece’s foreign ministry has said that Russia’s formal recognition of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine violates international law, the Minsk agreements and the country’s territorial integrity.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman has said Tehran is closely watching developments in Ukraine and calls on all sides to refrain from any action that would increase tensions, while China’s Ambassador to the UN has called on all parties to exercise restraint and avoid any action that might fuel tensions.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, however, is set to recognize the independence of the breakaway Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, a Russian lawmaker in charge of ties with Damascus has told a Russian news agency.