MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has acquired the right to build military bases in Ukraine’s two breakaway regions under new agreements with their separatist leaders, according to a copy of an agreement signed by President Vladimir Putin published on Monday.
Putin earlier on Monday 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.
Russia and the breakaway regions also plan to sign separate agreements on military cooperation and protection of borders, according to draft laws that Russia’s State Duma lower house of parliament will consider on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
