Yahoo TV

Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering a request from two regions of eastern Ukraine to be recognised as independent - a move the West says could give Moscow a pretext to openly send in its troops.

The Luhansk and Donetsk regions broke away from Kyiv’s control in 2014 and are now controlled by Russian-backed separatists.

Ukraine and the West consider the rebels to be Russia's proxies.

Moscow has repeatedly denied planning an attack on its neighbor.

But Putin has demanded sweeping security guarantees, including a promise that Ukraine will never join NATO.

“If Russia faces the danger of Ukraine joining NATO, the threat for our country will increase substantially. Because in Article Five in the treaty for NATO’s establishment, it follows that all NATO countries should fight on one of its members' sides if it is attacked. So since nobody recognises Crimean and Sevastopol people's will, and Ukraine insists that it is their territory, the real threat appears to be to us."

Putin added that Russia would not be annexing Luhansk and Donetsk and formally adding them to its own territory.

Kyiv and the West fear that a border incident near eastern Ukraine could be used as a pretext for Moscow to attack its neighbor.

Russia said on Monday (February 21) its forces killed a group of five saboteurs who breached the country's southwest border from Ukraine.

Kyiv dismissed the accusation as “fake news.”

Three senior Western officials have said Russian military units are now “poised” to make a large-scale invasion.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials said they did not know whether Putin had yet given the order.

But they raised concerns about an increase in false provocations in Russian-backed rebel regions in Ukraine.

The United States says Russia has now massed a force of up to 190,000 troops in the region - including pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.