Russian Embassy car in front of the Czech Foreign Ministry in PraguePRAGUE, Feb 23Russian Ambassador to Prague Alexander Zmeevsky was invited to the Czech Foreign Ministry on Wednesday to explain Russia's position on the situation in Ukraine, the online publication České noviny reported, citing the diplomatic department. RIA Novosti does not yet have comments from the Russian Embassy in Prague about this information. in Prague, Alexander Zmeevsky was invited to the Czech Foreign Ministry on Wednesday to explain Russia's position on the situation in Ukraine. The Russian ambassador was received by Deputy Foreign Minister Martin Smolek, the meeting lasted about 25 minutes,» the publication said without further details. The situation in Donbass has escalated in recent days, the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics announced a lot of shelling by the Ukrainian security forces. The leadership of the DPR and LPR announced the temporary evacuation of citizens to the Rostov region in connection with the threat of Ukraine's invasion. First of all, the evacuation concerns women, children and the elderly. The head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, said that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky may soon order the military to go on the offensive, to implement a plan to invade the DPR and LPR. On Saturday, February 19, the leaders of the DPR and LPR signed decrees on general mobilization, and then turned to Russia with a request to recognize the independence of the republics.Expert: recognition of the independence of the DPR and LPR confused geopolitical mapsRussian President Vladimir Putin on Monday after the meeting of the Security Council addressed the citizens of the Russian Federation and stated that he considers it necessary to immediately recognize the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics. He noted that the world prefers not to notice the horror and genocide in the Donbass, not a single day goes by without shelling, the killings of civilians and the blockade do not stop. As the President stated, in case of further bloodshed in the Donbass, the entire responsibility will be on the Kiev regime. Immediately after the appeal, the president in the Kremlin signed decrees recognizing the LPR and the DPR. In his decrees, Putin instructed to ensure the maintenance of peace in the DPR and LPR by the armed forces of the Russian Federation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kiev is considering breaking diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation. At the same time, Russia does not want to break off diplomatic relations with Ukraine, said Andrei Rudenko, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation. He added that the Minsk agreements are not valid due to the fault of Kiev.France announced the publication of EU sanctions against Russia On February 23, the United States and NATO countries, which supplied Ukraine with weapons and rejected Russia's demand not to expand the alliance to the east, condemned the decision to recognize the republics and threatened with serious economic sanctions. According to a senior US administration official, President Joe Biden, by his decree, banned American individuals and legal entities from investing in and trading with the DPR and LPR. Syria, on the contrary, expressed its readiness to recognize the DPR and LPR and work on establishing diplomatic relations. Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier that Russia proposed to solve the Donbass problem through peaceful negotiations and the implementation of the Minsk agreements, but this item has lost its relevance. According to him, the Minsk agreements were brought to naught by the efforts of the current Kiev authorities. He also added that the situation in Donbas tends to escalate.The development of the situation in Donbas is in the online report >>
