The content originally appeared on: CNN Lviv and Kyiv, Ukraine, and Moscow (CNN)Russian President Vladimir Putin has recognized two separatist territories in eastern Ukraine as independent states, ordering the deployment of Russian troops there in a dangerous gambit that defies international law and risks a deadly military confrontation. The Kremlin's decree recognizing the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, is a sharp escalation in a long-running conflict. For almost eight years the breakaway enclaves have […]
