Premium: Putin’s drive into Donbas gets Mr Market into a frightful pickle
The news cycle has entered warp speed after a belligerent Russian president told the world a story nobody in the West is prepared to believe, least of all Mr Market.
After massing troops on the Ukrainian border for some weeks, Vladimir Putin yesterday sent them into the Donbas region, to support Moscow-aligned separatists who have been waging war with Kyiv since 2014 after Russia annexed the Crimea. The rebels control around a third of Donbas but are claiming the other two thirds of this region in eastern Ukraine. The war has already claimed 14,000 lives.
It's complicated, as such things always are, but the map below provides context. Last night Putin stated he will not invade the rest of Ukraine and this action was to recognise the independence of the region and protect it against "Ukrainian aggression". US president Joe Biden says Putin is lying and warns full scale war is imminent. The Ukrainian Parliament yesterday voted to mobilise its army. More in the FT piece below, just published on its website.
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