Russian lawmakers have given President Vladimir Putin permission to use military force outside the country. The unanimous vote in Russia's upper house on Tuesday could presage a broader attack on Ukraine after the U.S. said an invasion was already underway there.
The vote formalizes a Russian military deployment to the rebel regions, where an eight-year conflict has killed nearly 14,000 people.
Several European leaders said earlier in the day that Russian troops have moved into rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine after Putin recognized their independence.
But it was unclear how large the movements were. Ukraine and its Western allies have long said Russian troops are fighting in the region. Moscow denies those allegations.
Russia’s closest allies appeared reluctant to immediately back Moscow’s decision to recognize the independence of rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine.
The Foreign Ministry of Belarus said Tuesday it saw Russian President Vladimir Putin’s move “with respect and understanding,” but refrained from saying whether Minsk would follow suit and recognize the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics.
Officials in Kazakhstan whose president last month asked for a Russia-led security alliance to send troops to quell violent unrest, said the issue of recognizing the separatist regions was not on the country’s agenda.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev who’s in Moscow for talks with Putin, made no mention of Moscow’s recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk in his publicly broadcast remarks but focused instead on bilateral relations.
Another Russian ally, Armenia, has so far issued no message of support for the Russian move.
Meanwhile, Putin sought to reassure Russia’s ex-Soviet allies that he doesn’t envision resurrecting the Soviet Union. He told the Azerbaijani president that speculation that Russia would attempt to restore its empire “is absolutely not true.”
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