Putin has now moved on to criticising the Ukrainian authorities.

He called the events of 2014 – which saw protesters topple Ukraine’s pro-Russian president – a “coup”.

Putin says, without providing evidence, that Ukraine was being controlled from the “outside”.

As Putin continues to deliver his address the nation, let's consider why Russia recognising the independence of two self-declared breakaway regions in Ukraine could be significant.

It goes beyond sanctions - which the EU has threatened to impose if Russia follows through with this.

Western powers fear such a move could be used as a pretext for Russia to invade its eastern neighbour.

That's because, since 2019, Russia has issued large numbers of passports to people living in the two regions.

Analysts say that if Donetsk and Luhansk were recognised as independent, Russia might send troops into Ukraine's east under the guise of protecting its own citizens.

Putin is now saying that Russia was "robbed" when the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991.

This is something he has spoken about before - he once called the collapse of the bloc a "geopolitical catastrophe".

Continuing his discussion of history, Putin criticises the former communist leader Vladimir Lenin, calling him the “author and architect” of Ukraine. He says he “disadvantaged” Russia.

Vladimir Putin has been warned that if he follows through with this move to recognise the independence of two self-declared republics in Ukraine, the EU is likely to impose sanctions.

"If there is annexation, there will be sanctions, and if there is recognition, I will put the sanctions on the table and the ministers will decide," the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said earlier.

Vladimir Putin has ignored the warnings. And before making his announcement just now, he told France's and Germany's leaders over the phone that he had made the decision, the Kremlin says.

France and Germany are key mediators between Ukraine and Russia over the conflict in the east.

Putin began his speech discussing history, saying modern Ukraine was “created” by Russia.

President Vladimir Putin has begun his address on Russian TV.

Stay with us for full coverage of what he says.

BBC Eastern Europe correspondent Sarah Rainsford thinks Moscow's recognition of the independence of two breakaway areas of Ukraine may not be a done deal just yet.

This is how the BBC's Diplomatic Correspondent sees it...

The Minsk Agreements betwen Ukraine and Russia outlined a plan of how to end the conflict between Ukrainian and Russian-backed separatist forces in the Donbas. That's the region where these self-declared republics which Putin now wants to recognise are located.

The Kremlin says President Putin has decided to recognise the independence of two breakaway areas of Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists.

A Kremlin statement said Putin had told the French and German leaders he intended to sign a decree recognising the Donetsk and Luhansk areas as independent states.

Sarah Rainsford
BBC Eastern Europe Correspondent

Today's Russian Security Council meeting was a piece of theatre in which everyone had their allotted role and their script.

Russia’s most senior officials sat in an awkward-looking semi-circle before Vladimir Putin, called upon one by one to step up to the mic and tell him what he wanted to hear.

In the story they spun, Russia was being compelled to step in to protect the people of the Donbas - many of them now Russian citizens - from the deadly threat posed by Kyiv, by giving formal recognition to the breakaway regions.

The word genocide was uttered again and Ukraine’s government described as puppets of the West.

Some played their part with more gusto than others.

At one point, a dry mouthed and stumbling intelligence chief strayed off script and declared his support for incorporating the breakaway regions into Russia. He was corrected like an errant schoolboy by President Putin.

The actual decision hasn’t been announced yet.

In a final flourish, Putin said he would first mull over what he’d heard, then make his call. Which sounded rather like a challenge to the US to try and stop him.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to give a televised address soon and he's expected to speak on whether to recognise the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk "people's republics".

Russia-backed rebels in those areas - located in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region - have been fighting the Ukrainian military since 2014 but Moscow has not officially recognised their self-declared republics.

Ukraine and the West fear that if this happens, it could lead Moscow to openly send military forces into the area.

Denis Pushilin, head of the Donetsk People's Republic, and Leonid Pasechnik, leader of the Luhansk People's Republic, today appealed to Putin to recognise their regions.

Top officials including Sergei Naryshkin, chief of foreign intelligence, and Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said Russia should do so.

Image source, Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to give a televised address, according to state media.

We'll update you on what he says when we have it.

Myroslava Petsa
BBC News Ukrainian, Kyiv

Image source, Getty Images

“No one knows what happens next. Pack your stuff for a day or two, grab some family photographs and take a bus to Kyiv. You’re going to stay with us here for the time being”.

This is what Hanna, a Kyiv-based professional, told her father Dmytro before he left the town of Chernihiv last week.

After first voting for pro-Western parties back in 2002, Chernihiv and its region never showed pro-Russian sentiment again.

Chernihiv is just a two-hour drive from Kyiv - and some 90 km away from the Russian border. A Russian tank can pass this route in under two hours. The thought of it was unbearable to Hanna.

The distance to Belarus, a strong ally of Moscow, is even shorter - just 60 km.

Before 150,000 Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border, Chernihiv was a perfect weekend getaway spot for Kyivites. Full of noisy pubs serving famous local beer and simple yet delicious cuisine, it seemed like the safest place on earth.

Not anymore. At least, not for Hanna. She's been monitoring the news a lot lately. Her father’s health has also been deteriorating in recent months. Now there is the uncertainty posed by Russia, so she decided it was time to bring her dad to Kyiv, even though safety is far from guaranteed in the capital right now.

“I don’t really have a Plan B for our family. We don’t even have a car in case Kyiv is shelled with rockets, and we’ll have to run away with all of our kids and cats and dad,” says Hanna.

“But having dad here with us and not closer to Russia, fearing for his life alone in his flat, brings some peace to my mind.”

Ukraine is a popular country for people to have children through surrogacy at private clinics, and up to a dozen Irish babies are due to be born in the next three or so months.

In normal circumstances, registering these births can take up to four weeks.

But now the Irish government has expedited plans for families with newborn surrogate babies to travel immediately from Ukraine.

It is understood that parents are being given emergency travel documentation so that they can leave Ukraine quickly.

Read more about the Irish government's plan.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

There's a lot going on today as the Ukraine crisis continues. Here's a round-up of the latest developments:

• Vladimir Putin has said a decision on recognising the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk "people's republics" as independent states will be made today
• This came soon after leaders of the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic appealed to Putin to recognise their regions
• Ukraine and the West fear that if this happens, it could lead Moscow to openly send military forces into the area
• UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace tells parliament there is “strong cause for concern that President Putin is still committed to an invasion”
• Joe Biden has agreed "in principle" to hold a formal meeting with Putin to discuss the crisis, but Russia says talk of a summit is premature and there are "no concrete plans" for a meeting
• The US says it has "credible information" that Russian forces are creating lists of Ukrainians to be killed or sent to camps in the event of a military occupation
• Several major European airlines have announced that they are either suspending or scaling back flights to Ukraine amid security concerns

Pavel Aksenov & Timur Sazonov
BBC Russian

A long line of coaches is lined up along a road in the Rostov region in southern Russia. During a short stop women and children leave the coaches for a few minutes, before getting back on to continue on their way.

This could almost be a school trip to a historical monument nearby, a memorial to the fallen in a World War II battle at Sambek heights. Yet it is anything but a school trip - these are evacuees from the separatist-held areas in eastern Ukraine who have been told to gather their belongings and go to Russia.

“There was shooting and shelling at night,” one woman outside a coach tells us, “at first, they said those were drills.”

Like many others in the Donbas area, she remembers 2014. “At that time no one told us to leave, people had to figure it out for themselves and evacuate on their own. But now everything is so rushed, like an emergency. Probably, something will happen. We didn’t want to wait.”

She says her husband is a border guard with the unrecognised Donetsk People’s republic. He phoned her during his shift: “Get your things, you are leaving tomorrow.”

14-year-old Katya is travelling with her grandma, Ira.

“Yes, we heard explosions, a long way off. It has been very peaceful and quiet for the past few years, we weren’t frightened,” she says.

“Things got worse in the past few days,” grandma Ira chips in.

In 2014 Ira and Katya, who was only six at the time, had to hide from shelling in a basement. They are worried they might have to again.

Russian troops within striking distance of Ukraine - officials claimpublished at 16:33 Greenwich Mean Time 21 February 2022

16:33 GMT 21 February 2022

Paul Adams
BBC diplomatic correspondent

What does Boris Johnson’s spokesman mean when he says that Vladimir Putin’s plan has “already begun”?

Clearly, no additional Russian troops have crossed into Ukraine (although since Russia controls the border with two separatist areas, and exerts considerable authority over the militias there, this can’t be certain).

But with violence escalating along the “line of control” which separates Ukrainian government territory from the “People’s Republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk, and a ferocious information war going on in tandem, western officials say that this marks the latest phase of a plan that’s been unfolding for “weeks and months”.

In a briefing this afternoon, western officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, the latest intelligence indicated that more Russian troops had moved to within striking distance of Ukraine.

Two thirds of the forces, they said, were now within 50km of the border. Of those, around half were now “tactically deployed” (a state of readiness that cannot be sustained for prolonged periods).

They also said they had evidence that some Russian military and security officials harboured “very serious doubts” about the wisdom of attacking Ukraine.

They wouldn’t comment on the nature of their intelligence, except to say that they were “perfectly confident in our sources,” and that it would be surprising if such doubts did not exist. Needless to say, such claims by western officials are almost impossible to verify.

Sergei Goryashko, BBC Russian, Moscow

Image source, Getty Images

A social media campaign has been launched in Russia under the hashtag #янемолчу (I am not keeping quiet), external to protest against an invasion by the Russian army into Ukraine.

Users across social media networks are posting about their links to Ukraine and their friends or relatives in the neighbouring country.

Started by a Russian online magazine “Kholod”, and its editor-in-chief Taisia Bekbulatova, the campaign aims to give voices to Russians worried about a possible escalation of the conflict and a ground invasion.

Bekbulatova, like many other independent journalists in Russia, is on the Ministry of Justice “foreign agent” list.

The label is potentially damaging to the reputation of media or an individual and limits their opportunities to work, place advertising or receive funding in Russia.

Bekbulatova says the campaign is an attempt to fight the feelings of helplessness and apathy many Russians are now experiencing in the face of what many of them see as an inevitable course of events.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has been updating British MPs on the tensions around the Ukrainian border, and again calls on Russia to not invade.