Vladimir Putin says Ukraine peace agreement ‘doesn’t exist anymore’, ready to deploy Russian troops

As the tensions between the two nations remain heightened, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the Ukraine peace agreement ‘does not exist anymore’, after he recognized the independence of the ex-Soviet country's separatist regions.

This comes as the Russia-Ukraine crisis remains at its peak and the speculations of war arise between the two nations. Amid this, Putin has said that the peace agreement that the West brokered between the two nations to end the conflict doesn’t exist anymore.

As per the media reports, Vladimir Putin said, “The Minsk agreements do not exist now, we recognised the DNR and LNR.” By DNR and LNR, Putin referenced to the separatist regions in Donetsk and Lugansk.

Russia’s upper house of Parliament granted the President permission to use the Russian forces outside of the country, which gives rise to the possibility that the country is likely to launch an attack on neighboring Ukraine soon.

Putin got the green light from his upper house of parliament on Tuesday to deploy Russian military forces to two separatist-held regions of eastern Ukraine for what lawmakers said would be a "peacekeeping" mission, as per Reuters reports.

Inflaming a crisis with the West, the upper chamber`s lawmakers voted unanimously in favour after Putin asked for permission to deploy forces abroad. That step came after Moscow recognised the independence of the Ukrainian regions on Monday, triggering international condemnation and sanctions.

Further, the Russian president on Tuesday called for an international recognition of Crimea as part of Russia, an end to Ukraine's NATO membership bid, and a halt to weapons shipments there.

Putin claimed that Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula should be internationally recognised as a legitimate reflection of the local population's choice, likening it to a vote for Kosovo independence. The annexation has been widely condemned by Western powers as a breach of international law.

To end the current crisis, he also called for the renunciation of Ukraine's NATO bid, saying it should assume a “neutral status”, and said that the West should stop sending weapons there.

(With Reuters inputs)