{"id":26149,"date":"2022-02-22T11:09:41","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T11:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/02\/22\/russia-flexes-military-for-ukraine-move-west-to-respond\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:47:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:47:02","slug":"russia-flexes-military-for-ukraine-move-west-to-respond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/flashpoints\/2022\/02\/22\/russia-flexes-military-for-ukraine-move-west-to-respond\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia flexes military for Ukraine move; West to respond"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Russia set the stage for a quick move to secure its hold on Ukraine\u2019s rebel regions<\/a> on Tuesday with new legislation that would allow the deployment of troops there as the West prepares to announce sanctions against Moscow amid fears of a full-scale invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new Russia bills, which are likely to be quickly rubber-stamped by the Kremlin-controlled parliament, came a day after President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence<\/a> of the regions in eastern Ukraine. The legislation could be a pretext for a deeper move into Ukrainian territory as the U.S. and its allies have feared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quickly after Putin signed the decree late Monday, convoys of armored vehicles were seen rolling across the separatist-controlled territories. It wasn\u2019t immediately clear if they were Russian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russian officials haven\u2019t yet acknowledged any troop deployments to the rebel east, but Vladislav Brig, a member of the separatist local council in Donetsk, told reporters that the Russian troops already had moved in, taking up positions in the region\u2019s north and west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That confirms what a Ukraine military official told Military Times Monday night that a new wave of Russian troops had entered the area in the wake of Putin\u2019s order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the nation in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Feb. 21, 2022. Russia’s Putin has recognized the independence of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, raising tensions with West. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Putin\u2019s decision to recognize the rebel regions<\/a> as independent states follows a nearly eight-year old separatist conflict that has killed more than 14,000 and devastated Ukraine\u2019s eastern industrial heartland called Donbas. The latest developments<\/a> and move by Putin were met with reprehension by many countries around the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever since the conflict<\/a> erupted weeks after Russia\u2019s 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Moscow of backing the separatists with troops and weapons, the charges it has denied, saying that Russians who fought in the east were volunteers. Putin\u2019s move Monday formalizes Russia\u2019s hold on the regions and gives it a free hand to deploy its forces there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Draft bills that are set quickly sail through both houses of Russian parliament Tuesday, envisage military ties, including possible deployment of Russian military bases in the separatist regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several senior lawmakers suggested Tuesday that Russia could recognize the rebel-held territories in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine in their original administrative borders, including the chunks of land currently under the Ukrainian control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sought to project calm, telling the country in an address overnight: \u201cWe are not afraid of anyone or anything. We don\u2019t owe anyone anything. And we won\u2019t give anything to anyone.\u201d His foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, would be in Washington on Tuesday to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the State Department said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Kremlin recognized its own aggression against Ukraine,\u201d Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Twitter, describing Moscow\u2019s move as a \u201cNew Berlin Wall\u201d and urging the West to quickly slap Russia with sanctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House responded quickly, issuing an executive order to prohibit U.S. investment and trade in the separatist regions, and additional measures \u2014 likely sanctions \u2014 were to be announced Tuesday. Those sanctions are independent of what Washington has prepared in the event of a Russian invasion, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent weeks, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered 4,700 members of the 82nd Airborne Division<\/a> to deploy to Poland as a show of support to NATO allies. Another 300 soldiers from the XVIII Airborne Corps made their way to Germany, while 1,000 soldiers from the Germany-based 2nd Cavalry Regiment went to Romania. There are also more than 20 U.S. warships in theater and numerous Air Force piloted and unpiloted aircraft flying over and around Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\t