VLADIMIR Putin has ordered his troops into Ukraine after an incendiary speech declaring the besieged nation “belongs to Russia”.The Russian strongman signed a decree recognising the Donetsk and Luhansk rebel republic in east Ukraine in a move which destroyed peace hopes.ReutersAnd eye witnesses spotted huge columns of troops moving through Donetsk even before Putin finished his rambling address.Putin signed off orders to parliament which made Russia the first country in the world to recognise the two mini-states created when he orchestrated a land grab in 2014.The last paragraph of his orders to parliament said he was ordering Russian armed forces to “provide peacekeeping on the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republic”.Unverified footage posted as the Russian president was still speaking in Moscow showed huge columns of vehicles, apparently moving onto Ukrainian soil.Other footage obtained by Al-Jazeera appeared to show the entry of Russian military convoys into the separatist areas of eastern Ukraine.Soon after, Ukrainian government sources said eyewitnesses in Makeevka, Donetsk had seen “a huge convoy of Russian APCs and other unidentified equipment moving for one hour and a half in the direction of Yasinuvata.
