Timeline: The story behind Ukraine’s separatist regions

Picture: Efrem Lukatsky/AP

Vladimir Putin has recognised the independence of Moscow-backed rebel regions in eastern Ukraine, a move that will further fuel tensions with the West amid fears of Russian invasion.

The Russian president’s move follows days of heightened tensions in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, where Ukrainian forces are locked in a nearly eight-year conflict with Russia-backed separatists that has left more than 14,000 people dead.