World News: Putin plans to recognise eastern Ukraine’s breakaway regions – Gulf Digital News

World News: Putin plans to recognise eastern Ukraine’s breakaway regions – Gulf Digital News

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin will sign a decree recognising two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent entities shortly, the Kremlin said, upping the ante in a crisis the West fears could unleash a war.

Putin announced his decision in phone calls to the leaders of Germany and France, who voiced disappointment, the Kremlin said in a readout of the calls.

Moscow's move could torpedo a last-minute bid for a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine, and the rouble tanked further after the Kremlin statement.

The European Union warned of sanctions from the 27-nation bloc should Moscow annex or recognise the breakaway regions in the east of Ukraine and largely controlled by Russia-backed separatists.

"If there is annexation, there will be sanctions, and if there is recognition, I will put the sanctions on the table and the ministers will decide," the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said after a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers.

Recognition of the rebel-held areas could provide a pretext for Russian troops to cross the border into those areas.

It will also narrow the diplomatic options to avoid war, since it is an explicit rejection of a seven-year-old ceasefire mediated by