Ukraine cuts ties after North Korea recognises breakaway regions

North Korea on Wednesday recognised two Russian-backed breakaway “people’s republics” in eastern Ukraine as independent states, a separatist leader and a Russian state news agency said.

The move makes North Korea, led by Kim Jong-un, only the third country after Russia and Syria to recognise the two breakaway entities, the Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk regions (LPR), in Ukraine’s Donbas region.

Ukraine severed relations with North Korea after the announcement. “We consider this decision as an attempt by Pyongyang to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry said.

In a post on his Telegram channel, DPR leader Denis Pushilin said he hoped for “fruitful co-operation” and increased trade with North Korea, an isolated, nuclear-armed state more than 6,500km away.

The DPR's embassy in Moscow posted a photo on its Telegram channel of a ceremony in which North Korea’s ambassador to Moscow Sin Hong-chol handed a certificate of recognition to DPR envoy Olga Makeyeva.

North Korea’s embassy in Moscow confirmed it had recognised the independence of both entities on Wednesday, Russia’s Tass  news agency later reported.

Russia, which has backed the regions since 2014, recognised them on the eve of its invasion of Ukraine in a move condemned by Kyiv and the West as illegal.

It justified its decision to launch the war, which it calls a “special military operation”. But Kyiv and the West have dismissed these assertions as a pretext for waging war and seizing swathes of Ukraine’s territory.

North Korea previously expressed support for Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Reuters