Moscow. February 21. INTERFAX-AVN - The Ukrainian authorities must immediately cease hostilities in the Donbas, otherwise Kiev will be fully responsible for the possible continuation of the bloodshed, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"And from those who have seized and are holding power in Kiev, we demand an immediate cessation of hostilities. Otherwise, the entire responsibility for the possible continuation of the bloodshed will be entirely on the conscience of the regime ruling on the territory of Ukraine," Putin said in a televised address.
Putin on Monday signed a decree recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics.
At a ceremony in the Kremlin, the President of the Russian Federation signed agreements on friendship and mutual assistance with the heads of the LPR and DPR.
Earlier on Monday, at an expanded meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Putin listened to the opinions of participants regarding appeals for recognition of the independence of the DPR and LPR. The participants of the meeting actually unanimously supported this.
Russia will protect the DPR and the LPR by recognizing them, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said at that meeting.
"I think that if we do this, we will protect them - those people who live there. And that's what we have to take care of. And we will give them the opportunity to work quietly," Patrushev said.
Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said at a meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation that it is necessary to recognize the independence of Donbass within the borders established before their "occupation by Ukraine."
"It is definitely necessary to recognize these republics, their legal personality, but I would like to make an amendment - to recognize them within the administrative borders in which these republics and the peoples of these republics were before the occupation by the armed forces of Ukraine, namely from Mariupol and ending with those historical borders," Kolokoltsev said.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday condemned Russia's decision to recognize the independence of the DPR and LPR, pointing out that this step is a violation of the Minsk agreements. According to him, such a decision "undermines the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, destroys efforts aimed at resolving the conflict, and violates the Minsk agreements."
Stoltenberg called on Russia to "choose the path of diplomacy" and "withdraw its troops from Ukraine in accordance with its international obligations."
