Alexei Nikolsky/Associated Press
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said that the Minsk peace agreements — which sought to end the war in eastern Ukraine — no longer "exist," Russian state media reported.
"The Minsk agreements do not exist now," he said, according to a translation from AFP, one day after he formally recognized the independence of two Moscow-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine and ordered troops there.
The Russian president on Monday signed a decree recognizing the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states.
"We signed agreements yesterday, and in these agreements with both the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic there are relevant clauses that say that we will provide these republics with appropriate, including military assistance," Putin said on Tuesday, according to Russian state media.
He added, "Since there is a conflict there by this decision, we make it clear that we, if necessary, intend to fulfill our obligations."
Meanwhile, in the US earlier Tuesday, the White House said that Russia's military actions constitute the beginning of an invasion into Ukraine.
"We think this is, yes, the beginning of an invasion, Russia's latest invasion into Ukraine," Biden administration deputy national security advisor Jon Finer told CNN.
The Minsk accords, signed in 2014 and 2015, were ceasefire agreements designed to end fighting in the Donbas region of Ukraine. They were never fully implemented, and fighting continued. Kyiv and Moscow fundamentally disagreed when it came to their interpretations of Minsk.
Among other things, the accords called for the Kremlin-backed separatist territories in the Donbas to be granted special status or a certain level of autonomy, while continuing to recognize them as Ukrainian territory. Ukraine and Russia disagreed on what this would look like in practice.
Moscow's refusal to admit that it had a military presence in the Donbas also complicated implementation of the accords. The Kremlin said it wasn't party to the conflict, and therefore was not bound by the terms of the agreements. Opponents of the accords warned that they could give Moscow too much power over Ukrainian politics and national affairs.
But by recognizing Donetsk and Luhansk as independent, Putin effectively sank the Minsk accords and raised alarm bells across Europe and beyond.
