Putin Orders Deployment of Troops to Breakaway Regions in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin requested Russian troops into two breakaway areas of Ukraine immediately after recognizing their independence, a shift that threatened to scuttle negotiations with the West around the foreseeable future security of Eastern Europe.

His two decrees were being published on the Russian government’s legal portal just after a televised tackle late Monday in which Mr. Putin laid out grievances about the West’s assist of Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Western arms deliveries to Kyiv towards the backdrop of a massive Russian troop buildup close to its borders.