Comment: Ukraine is in deep sh*t now. If it keeps attacking the two new small countries, now formally under Russia's military and economic protection, the Bear is likely going to smack it, hard...
The Russian president was advised by top security officials to acknowledge the independence of the breakaway regions
Following a meeting of Russia's Security Council, President Vladimir Putin has announced that he will decide on Monday whether to recognize the two self-declared breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in Ukraine's war-torn Donbass region.
Speaking at the end of the session, during which government ministers and the head of the country's security agencies claimed that the humanitarian situation across the border is worsening, Putin said that "I have heard your opinions. A decision will be made today," before ending the meeting.
Comment: Here's Putin TV address to the nation (with EN subs). It's worth watching in full. Putin excoriated the Ukrainian government, cataloguing its crimes against its own people since 2014
All that hysteria about INVASION overlooked RECOGNITION!
The chessboard has just radically shifted. What will NATO do now?
Well, there's nothing they can do, really. Other than howl and shriek. Russia is now the moral and legal arbiter of 'what happens' - in its 'near-abroad' anyway.