You're reading: The Times: Russia threatens to back Ukraine split

Russia has threatened to support a partitioning of Ukraine if it signs a landmark co-operation agreement with the European Union in two months’ time. Sergei Glazyev, one of Vladimir Putin’s top advisers, said that Ukraine’s Russian-speaking minority might break up the country in protest at a move that European, Russian and Ukrainian politicians see as a shift away from Moscow’s influence. He said that Russia would be legally entitled to support them.

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