President Vladimir Putin ordered his defence ministry to despatch Russian peacekeepers to eastern Ukraine's two breakaway regions, according to a decree published early on Tuesday after he said Moscow would recognise their independence.
Putin earlier signed decrees to recognise the two breakaway regions -- the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic -- as independent statelets defying Western warnings that such a step would be illegal and kill off long-running peace negotiations.
(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
