Russian President Vladimir Putin signs documents, including a decree recognising two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent entities, during a ceremony in Moscow, Russia, in this picture released February 21, 2022. Sputnik/Alexey Nikolsky/Kremlin via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin ordered his defence ministry to despatch Russian peacekeepers to eastern Ukraine's two breakaway regions, according to a decree published early on Tuesday after he said Moscow would recognise their independence.
Putin earlier signed decrees to recognise the two breakaway regions -- the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic -- as independent statelets defying Western warnings that such a step would be illegal and kill off long-running peace negotiations.
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