TASS
February 22, 2022
State Duma to send appeal to Russian president on recognizing Donetsk, Lugansk republics
The State Duma approved a resolution at its session on Tuesday to forward to the Russian president a draft appeal by the lower house of Russia’s parliament as proposed by the Communist faction on recognizing the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR).
The decision was supported by 351 lawmakers, with 16 votes against it and one abstention. The State Duma rejected a competing draft resolution on forwarding the appeal to the Foreign Ministry for consultations. This motion gained only 310 votes during the ranked voting.
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TASS
February 15, 2022
Russia to provide response to Ukraine should it attack or kill Russian citizens – envoy
Russia will not invade Ukraine, unless the Kiev regime resorts to provocations that would hurt Russian citizens, Russian Permanent Representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said in an interview for The Guardian.
“We will not invade Ukraine unless we are provoked to do that,” he said. “If the Ukrainians launch an attack against Russia, you shouldn’t be surprised if we counterattack. Or, if they start blatantly killing Russian citizens anywhere – Donbass or wherever.”
“What I mean by provocation is that they [Ukraine] may stage an incident against the self-proclaimed Donbas republics, provoking them, and then hitting them with all their might, thus provoking Russia to react in order to avoid humanitarian catastrophe on its borders,” he added.
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TASS
February 15, 2022
Kiev to view Moscow recognizing DPR, LPR as ‘de facto exit’ from Minsk-2 – top diplomat
Ukraine will consider the approval of an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin to recognize the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) by the Russian State Duma as Moscow’s exit from the Minsk Accords which it signed as a mediator, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said on Tuesday.
“As for the possible recognition of the LPR and DPR by the Russian Duma. I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s invariable stance: in case of approving the decision on recognition, Russia will de facto and de jure leave the Minsk Accords with all collateral consequences,” he said at a briefing.
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TASS
February 13, 2022
Ukraine’s army getting prepared to sending assault force to LPR – LPR official
Ukraine’s armed forces plan to send an assault force to the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), Ivan Filiponenko, a spokesman for the LPR People’s Militia, said on Sunday.
According to Filiponenko, units of the 79th assault airborne brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces “are getting prepared for the deployment as a tactical assault force in the republic’s hinterlands.” “Commander of the United Forces Operation (Kiev’s armed operation in Donbass – TASS) [Alexander] Pavlyuk has arrived in the settlement of Voitovo to check the combat readiness of the 1st battalion,” he said.
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TASS
February 11, 2022
Ukraine sending S-300 battalion to Donbass to gear up for offensive, says DPR brass
The Ukrainian Armed Forces have deployed a battalion of the S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Donbass in order to prepare for an offensive, Deputy Chief of the People’s Militia of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Eduard Basurin said on Friday.
“According to our information, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are carrying out activities that we view as preparations for offensive operations,” Basurin wrote on the DPR Militia’s Telegram channel.
“A battalion of the S-300 surface-to-air missile systems of the 160th Air Defense Missile Brigade has been redeployed from the Odessa Region to the Kramatorsk airfield in order to protect a command center of the united forces operation (which is what Kiev calls its military operation in Donbass – TASS),” the DPR military official pointed out.
Anti-bellum 
A couple of questions regarding the ‘Donbass Republics’ – why are there two, instead of just one, it seems like a bureaucratic redundancy given their size and similarity, and also, why was not more ground claimed in 2014-15, to render them more secure? Even the entire Donbass oblasts? The Line of Contact runs very close to both capitals, it’s a very odd ‘partition’. The Minsk Accords were signed during the late stages of the Debaltseve battle, creating a very unstable status quo, it just seems very strange that Russia settled for the given outcome at the point where it (and/or) its local allies were winning. If anyone can shed any light on that it would be helpful.
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When the war began – branded Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) by Kiev – I was told by a friend from Transnistria who was in contact with people in the Donbass that there were junta sympathizers in Donetsk and Lugansk (that is, the parts of both that broke from Kiev), who among other things were spotting for Ukrainian government artillery strikes; unlike Crimea, where the population was viewed as almost entirely reliable/loyal. That’s anecdotal and for what it’s worth. When I heard that I suspected that was an excuse for Russia not to defend Russian-speakers, even Russian nationals there. I can tell you about Russian actions/inaction during the first year or so of the war which I followed daily on Russian news sites….As for the Donetsk and Lugansk republics not merging, perhaps because of administrative distinctions of long standing?
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Maybe as to the latter, though going back to the prewar period (ie WW2) they were part of one province. Regarding the main question, it is odd indeed the role Russia played, half-support yet not enough to win outright or even create a secure enclave. From a purely strategic pov, one might have thought Russia would have wanted to secure the entire border zone from Sumy down to Mariupol at least, without necessarily resorting to outright partition, depending on diplomatic and political factors. Putin seems to have supported Assad more decisively than the Ukraine Russians (or Artsakh Armenians for that matter). Now it’s much harder from a ‘military-technical’ (or even diplomatic-political) pov.
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It’s like Aesop’s fable of the boys and the frogs. Poroshenko and Putin threw stones in jest, Donbass residents died in earnest. Russian security forces – not necessarily military – could have been invited into the Donbass by then sitting president Viktor Yanukovych in early 2014.
I see the West lately has been playing a game of legal niceties in regard to not engaging in wars except when bound by NATO or other treaty obligations. That didn’t stop them in 1991 over Kuwait.
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