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Does that mean he doesn't recognize the non-breakaway regions as independent? He's going to annex the rest of Ukraine?

• jealousPumpkin 5y ago
  That means that as soon as it is recognized, Russia will move a lot of weaponry to those regions(already).
  • throwaway81523 5y ago
    Thanks, I think I get it now. These are regions within Ukraine that broke away from the Ukraine govt and want to join or ally with Russia, not the other way around. Or something like that.
    • foxyv 5y ago
      As I understand it, Russia astroturfed an independence movement in Ukraine as a pretext to break off a chunk of it for themselves. The "Ukrainians" in these regions "declare independence" then Russia "recognizes their independence" and moves troops in to support that recognition. Eventually a "referendum" or something is held to accept Russia's generous offer to become a state/protectorate/whatever.
      • dragonwriter 5y ago
        > Russia astroturfed an independence movement in Ukraine as a pretext to break off a chunk of it for themselves. That's true, but one should note that that only worked because of a large local Russia-sympathetic population. Otherwise, it would have worked out more like when they tried to inflame California separatism in 2016-2017.