Live: Putin orders Russian troops into eastern Ukraine to 'maintain peace'

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered troops into eastern Ukraine to 'maintain peace' after signing a decree recognising two breakaway republics. Follow our live blog for the latest.

Subscribe to our thematic channels:

#World

[ВячеславШипин-ээ]

I live in Russia, and i'm really scared of this situation, Russian popularity doesn't want to start any War, we are just victims of our cruel authorities
I hope everyone in the rest of the world understand it

[pavelhajko]

Remember year of 1938 and how Hitler grabbed Sudetenland and how it led to WW2.
When Adolf Hitler came to power, he wanted to unite all Germans into one nation. In September 1938 he turned his attention to the three million Germans living in part of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland. Sudeten Germans began protests and provoked violence from the Czech police. Hitler claimed that 300 Sudeten Germans had been killed. This was not actually the case, but Hitler used it as an excuse to place German troops along the Czech border.
Soon afterwards, these border territories were annexed from Czechoslovakia, and some time after that, Hitler seized whole country. Czechoslovakia ceased to exists and Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren was formed.
The rest is history.
Never negotiate with terrorists in Kremlin.

Via wikipedia:
"Appeasement policy, the policy of appeasing Hitler and Mussolini, operating jointly at that time, during 1937 and 1938 by continuous concessions granted in the hope of reaching a point of saturation when the dictators would be willing to accede to international collaboration. ... It came to an end when Hitler seized Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939, in defiance of his promises given at Munich, and Prime Minister Chamberlain, who had championed appeasement before, decided on a policy of resistance to further German aggression."
– Walter Theimer (ed.), The Penguin Political Dictionary, 1939

[Reza-nzre]

"Violation of International law"
How many time did Israel violated the International law?? Anyone knows?

[mohamedvithekillerofryan]

هي أراضي روسية و لا حق للامريكا و بريطانيا منع روسيا من إستعادة أراضيها

[Nickel_Eye]

wow what a lovely guy sending his peacekeepers in Ukraine and Georgia to maintain world peace

[catpainwafflesscatpainwaff]

Russia: Hi my Ukrainian friends. I am massing troop near your boarders but do not worry... this is only for military drills, no fears. But you know... here are my demands to NATO... not that I am about to attack or anything. Oh look there is a region of yours that decided to go rouge... and I know that I have been accused of militarily supporting this sudden and random uprise in the past... while annexing your other region. But oh how conveniently our troops are near them so I guess we will go and you know... liberate them or something. But don't worry... WE ARE THE PEACE KEEPERS :)

[sugarvenom]

West: - We prepare unprecedented, swift, severe, united, astronomical super sanctions package.
Putin: - Good. Leave the package in Kiev. My army is on the way to pick it up.

[gibsonav]

Oh goodie, Biden signed some papers... that'll fix everything

[rammen]

Anyone remember the little green men that were suspiciously dressed in Russian military uniform without the insignia. They went on to annex these regions that Russia is now claiming as sovereign republics! Laughable.

[annat.]

We all knew Putin was going to get his way one way or another.

[Twit.Tw]

Well if Putin is entering Ukraine on a peace keeping basis, it's only right to give him a chance / help him with his work. Many other countries undertake such work with other countries.

[ThePremel]

Those Ukrainians who did collaborate with the German occupiers did so in various ways including participating in the local administration, in German-supervised auxiliary police,  Schutzmannschaft, in the German military, and serving as concentration camp guards. Nationalists in western Ukraine were among the most enthusiastic and hoped that their efforts would enable them to re-establish an independent state later on. For example, on the eve of Operation' Barbarossa, as many as 4000 Ukrainians, operating under Wehrmacht orders, sought to cause disruption behind Soviet lines. After the capture of Lviv, a highly-contentious and strategically-important city with a significant Ukrainian minority,  OUN leaders proclaimed a new Ukrainian State on June 30, 1941 and simultaneously encouraged loyalty to the new regime in the hope that they would be supported by the Germans. Already in 1939, during the German-Polish War, the OUN had been "a faithful German auxiliary".[7]

Professor Ivan Katchanovski writes that during the war, the leadership of OUN B and UPA was heavily engaged in Nazi collaboration. He wrote that at least 23% of its leaders in Ukraine were in the auxiliary police, Schutzmannschaft Battalion 201, as well as in other police formations, and 18% took part in training in Nazi Germany's military and intelligence schools in Germany and Nazi-occupied Poland, 11% served the Nachtigall and Roland Battalions, 8% in local administration during the Nazi occupation and 1% in the SS Galicia Division. According to Katchanovski, the percentage of Nazi collaborators among the OUN-B and UPA leadership is likely higher than those numbers since data from early occupation are often missing.[8]

Despite initially acting warmly to the idea of an independent Ukraine, the Nazi administration had other ideas, particularly the Lebensraum programme and the total 'Aryanisation' of the population. It preferred to play the Slavic nations against one another. OUN initially carried out attacks on Polish villages to try to exterminate Polish populations or expel Polish enclaves from what the OUN fighters perceived as Ukrainian territory.[7] When OUN help was no longer needed, its leaders were imprisoned, and many members were summarily executed. The arrests were only temporary, however, according to professor Katchanovski since 27% of the leadership of OUN B and UPA were arrested at least once, they were released relatively soon or allowed to escape.[9]

According to Timothy Snyder, "something that is never said, because it's inconvenient for precisely everyone, is that more Ukrainian Communists collaborated with the Germans, than did Ukrainian nationalists." Snyder also points out that very many of those who collaborated with the German occupation also collaborated with the Soviet policies in the 1930s.[10]

[dhjoubert]

The only way to prevent this war now, is if Ukraine officially recognizes the two break-away territories and gets immediate membership of the EU.