Putin Deploys Troops to Donbas Republics as Peacekeepers

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian military to send troops to the breakaway republics of Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk (LPR) in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in a mission he described as a peacekeeping operation.

The order came after Putin signed a decree recognizing the sovereignty of the two republics. Putin also instructed Russia’s Foreign Ministry to establish diplomatic relations with the DPR and LPR.

The eastern Ukraine separatists don’t control all of the territories they claim in the Donbas. At this point, it’s not clear if the Russian troops will try to push Ukraine out of the claimed territory or if they will be deployed to the line of control, the buffer zone set by the Minsk agreements, which established the fragile ceasefire in the Donbas.