Russian President Vladimir Putin announced, on the evening of Monday 21 February, that he would recognise the independence of the ‘People’s Republics’ of Donestk and Luhansk. The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, immediately reacted to the Russian announcement, calling the recognition “a flagrant violation of international law, the territorial integrity of Ukraine and the Minsk agreements”. They...