⚡️In phone call with Macron and Scholz, Putin said he intended to sign "in the near future" a decree recognizing the independence of separatist-held Donetsk and Luhansk. According the Kremlin: The French and German leaders "expressed their disappointment with this development." 
maybe "in the near future" leaves some wiggle room still?
Speaking in a live TV address, Putin is ... now offering a history lecture of the Ukrainian state.
Putin: "Ukraine is an integral part of our own history.... Ukraine was created by Vladimir Lenin, he is its creator and its architect."
Putin is now in the part of this speech where he discussing... the debt of the Soviet Union at the moment of its collapse.... which leads to an accusation that Ukraine has failed to pay its share of the Soviet debts post-collapse.
Putin: "Ukraine is trying to twist the historical memory of those who lived in Ukraine... radical nationalism because Russophobic."
Putin: Ukraine has stolen natural gas from Russia, and used energy (i.e. its extensive gas pipeline network) to blackmail Russia
Putin now complaining about what he says is the rise of are neo-Nazis in Ukraine. "Radicals pushed Ukraine into the chasm of civil war."
Putin now discussing ... Ukrainian microeconomics: water prices, medical professionals (allegedly) leaving the country, energy prices.
Putin now discussing Ukrainian state industrial policy, lamenting/asserting the (alleged) dysfunction of shipyards, missile designers, weapons builders, railways, ports administration.
Putin asserts Ukraine is totally managed by foreign powers; claims Ukraine anti-corruption agencies are controlled by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
Putin asserts the Russian language has been marginalized by Ukrainian authorities, claims Ukraine is preparing to destroy the Russian Orthodox Church (in Ukraine)
Putin asserts Ukraine is now a puppet regime of the United States, accuses Western intelligence agencies of helping Ukraine to commit (unspecified?) crimes.
Putin asserts Ukraine now planning to build its own nuclear weapons (which, TBF, is a riff off the comments that President Zelenskiy made in Munich the other day, when he made pointed references to the Budapest memorandum, and Kyiv agreeing to give up its nukes in the 1990s)
Putin accuses the United States and NATO of turning Ukraine into a theater of war; accuses U.S. drones of flying of Ukraine constantly; says NATO trainers of are deploying to Ukraine (to be sure, this is true)
Putin now discussing the indivisibility of security (a international law notion that Moscow has fixated on repeatedly in recent weeks, though often with very selective and dubious reading)
Putin now mentioning the "not one inch" notion of NATO expansion (which is an immensely complicated history that historians are still debating to this day)
Putin: Russia fulfilled all obligations after Soviet collapse. Now criticizing US President Bill Clinton for duplicitous comments during visit to Moscow about NATO expansion. "Western countries have just lied to us"
Putin asserts NATO is planning further expansion to the east: "it is just a matter of time."
Putin asserts West/EU/US will impose sanctions no matter what happens in Ukraine; grounds for sanctions will be fabricated; Russia has the right to take retaliatory measures
Putin asserts Ukrainian government has no desire to implement the Minsk Accords (not true)
⚡️⚡️⚡️Putin says he will immediately recognise the independence of the separatist-held administrations of Donetsk and Luhansk
Copy of Putin's decree
And Putin's order for Russian soldiers to be sent to Donetsk, Luhansk regions to "maintain peace."
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