[Taf]

Putin is reportedly going to sign a decree, recognising the 2 rebel areas in the east of Ukraine as independent states.

And then Putin gets them to join The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO; Russian: Организация Договора о коллективной безопасности, romanized: Organizatsiya Dogovora o kollektivnoy bezopasnosti; Russian: ОДКБ, romanized: ODKB.

And along the same lines of NATO, an attack on any member state is considered an attack on the whole alliance. So that would just need one false flag operation, saying that Ukraine attacked either of the new states, and the entire CSTO would attack Ukraine.