Demonstrators
© AP/Ivan Petrov1 Demonstranter i Skt. Petersborg, Rusland samles til støtte for Folkerepublikken Donetsk og Lugansk 23. februar 2022
De nyligt anerkendte Donbass-republikker i Lugansk og Donetsk har formelt anmodet Rusland om militær bistand i breve offentliggjort onsdag.

I dem hævder deres ledere, at ukrainsk 'aggression' kun er steget, siden Moskva anerkendte regionerne som uafhængige stater tidligere på ugen.

Lederne af Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) og Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) skrev hver for sig til den russiske præsident Vladimir Putin, men begge breve var dateret tirsdag den 22. februar.

DPR's Denis Pushilin og hans LPR-modpart Leonid Pasechnik påberåbte sig artikel tre og fire i deres nyligt ratificerede traktater om samarbejde og gensidig bistand med Rusland og bad Moskva om at 'give hjælp til at afværge det ukrainske regimes militære aggression', som de hævder er i gang med krig mod dem.

'Ukrainsk aggression er stigende,' skrev Pushilin og citerede den påståede stigning i artilleribombardement rettet mod kritisk civil infrastruktur og angiveligt efterlod 300.000 mennesker uden vand, efter at republikkens vigtigste vandværk blev ramt. DNR-lederen hævdede, at Ukraine fortsætter, hvad han kaldte et 'folkedrab' på de civile, som tilsyneladende har tvunget til evakuering af over 40.000 mennesker indtil videre.


Kommentar: Delvist oversat af Sott.net fra Donbass republics ask Putin for military help


"Actions of the Kiev regime testify that they have no desire to carry out the Minsk agreements and stop the war in Donbass," wrote Pasechnik, adding that Ukraine is receiving military aid from the US and other Western countries and is "oriented towards ending the conflict with the LPR by force."

Pasechnik also noted that over 51,000 people have been evacuated from Lugansk so far, more than half of them children.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted there was no military offensive aimed at the two regions, which Kiev considers "temporarily occupied" renegade territories. Ukraine has also accused the DPR and LPR of staging "false flag" incidents against their own civilians to justify a "Russian invasion."

Donetsk and Lugansk declared their independence from Ukraine in 2014, after the West-backed protests ended with a coup ousting the democratically elected government in Kiev. The Ukrainian military's attempts to subjugate the area by force failed, resulting in the uneasy ceasefires signed in Minsk, Belarus - first in September 2014, then in February 2015.

Moscow had long refused to recognize the two republics, pointing to Minsk and calling the conflict an internal Ukrainian matter. On Monday, however, Putin said that Kiev had openly refused to comply with the Minsk agreements and signed a decree on the "long overdue" recognition of Donetsk and Lugansk.