On the 21st local time, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Scholz that he would sign an order recognizing the Donetsk and Luhansk republics.

　　The French president and the German chancellor expressed disappointment at the development, but both expressed their willingness to maintain contacts.

　　On the same day, Putin hosted a Russian Federation Security Conference at the Kremlin to discuss the Donbas issue.

Putin hopes that all participants will study Russia's situation on the basis of the request by the leaders of the civil forces in Donetsk and Luhansk for Russia to recognize it as an independent state, as well as the appeal letter from the Russian State Duma to the Russian President on recognizing the self-proclaimed state of the civil forces. Next step.

Unlike previous security conferences, this conference was broadcast live on TV.

　　Putin said at the meeting that in order to hear the true expression of opinions, he and all the participants had not communicated in advance on the issues of the day.

Putin emphasized that whether to recognize the civilian-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine as a state is closely related to world and European security, because using Ukraine as a tool to confront Russia is a serious threat to Russia.

Medvedev, Vice Chairman of the Russian Federation Security Council, Volodin, Chairman of the Russian State Duma, Matviyenko, Chairman of the Russian Federation Council, Russian Prime Minister Mishustin, Secretary of the Russian Federation Security Council Patrushev, and Russian Foreign Minister Lav Rove, Russian Defense Minister Shoigu, Russian representative of the tripartite contact group on Ukraine Kozak, Russian Federal Security Service Director Poltnikov, Russian Foreign Intelligence Director Naryshkin and others took turns to speak, pointing out that Ukraine is in the With the connivance of Western countries, they refused to implement the Minsk Agreement and assembled heavy weapons, including tanks, and 59,300 soldiers near the line of contact between Donetsk and Luhansk.

In order to protect the lives and safety of the people in the Donbas region, the vast majority of the participants supported the immediate recognition of the areas controlled by the civilian armed forces in Udong as an independent country. .

　　Ukraine sought NATO membership more than a decade ago.

If Ukraine joins NATO, it means that this US-led military group will expand to Russia's "doorstep".

Putin warned in December that this violated Russia's "red line".

In December 2021, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on security dialogue with the United States and other Western countries, requesting the United States and NATO to provide legal guarantees for excluding the possibility of NATO's further eastward expansion.

From January 10th to 13th this year, Russia conducted dialogues with the United States and NATO on security proposals respectively, but no substantive results were achieved.

　　In April 2014, large-scale clashes between Ukrainian government troops and civilian armed forces broke out in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine (including Donetsk and Luhansk regions).

Through the good offices of the international community, the two parties to the conflict reached a ceasefire agreement in Minsk in September 2014 and February 2015 respectively, setting the ceasefire demarcation line.

Since then, large-scale armed conflicts have been brought under control, but small-scale exchanges of fire still occur from time to time.

Recently, the relationship between Russia and Ukraine has continued to be tense, and the two sides have deployed a large number of military personnel and weapons in the border areas of the two countries.

The United States, Ukraine and NATO allege that Russia has assembled a large number of troops near the eastern border of Ukraine and has the potential of "invasion".

Russia denies this, emphasizing that NATO activities threaten Russia's border security, and Russia has the right to mobilize troops within its borders to defend its territory.

　　(Headquarters reporter Wang Bin)