Russian lawmakers' request for Putin to recognize Ukraine's breakaway regions gives him another card to play
CBSN
Kyiv — Russian lawmakers voted on Tuesday to send a formal request to President Vladimir Putin to recognize the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that if Putin were to sign the legislation, it would "amount to the Russian government's wholesale rejection of its commitments" under previously negotiated, but never fully implemented peace agreements known as the Minsk Accords.
Both the West and Russia have said they view the Minsk Accords, which ended major fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces in Donbas in 2015, as roadmaps to a diplomatic solution to the current crisis. While the war in Donbas was quieted by the agreements, the fighting never completely stopped. Ukraine's government says the grinding conflict has now left at least 14,000 people dead.
Russia launched a barrage of missiles at Ukraine Thursday in its first major retaliation for Ukraine's attack earlier in the week on a military facility in the Russian region of Bryansk. That strike saw the Ukrainians use American-made and supplied long-range missiles known as ATACMS, which President Biden had given the Ukrainian forces permission to fire deeper into Russian territory only two days earlier.
Amersham, England — Family and friends of One Direction star Liam Payne, who died last month after falling from a Buenos Aires hotel room, gathered for his funeral in Britain on Wednesday. Payne's former bandmates Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson were among mourners at the private service at St Mary's Church in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, just outside London.