Vladimir Zelensky. Source: President of Ukraine's website
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented another video report. Zelensky said he had requested a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but had received no response. “The result is silence,” Zelensky said in Russian, “although there should be silence in the Donbas.”
Vladimir Putin previously expressed hope that the issue of the DLR and LPR could be resolved through negotiations their real borders and the formal ones along which most of the LDNR's territory is controlled by Ukraine) – but Kiev is clearly not ready for that yet. The Federation Council granted the President of Russia permission to use Russian troops abroad. On the evening of February 23, the heads of the Donbas republics, Pushkin and Pasechnik, turned to Putin for help in repelling the Ukrainian aggression. Officially, Russian troops did not enter the Donbas.