RUSSIAN communists have called on the State Duma to recognise the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics in Ukraine, it was confirmed today.

A draft message to Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to be heard at parliamentary committee on February 15, Communist Party of the Russian Federation MP and one of the authors of the documents, Leonid Kalashnikov said.

The appeal from the lower house was issued by the communist parliamentary faction and party leader Gennady Zyuganov as Western powers continue an aggressive drive to war.

It calls on the State Duma to issue Mr Putin “with a request for considering the recognition of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic as independent and sovereign states.”

Donetsk and Lugansk declared independence from Ukraine following the 2014 ousting of the democratically elected government of President Victor Yanukovich.

He had angered Brussels and Western powers after rejecting an EU deal that committed Ukraine to working towards convergence with the EU Common and Security Policy and the policies of the European Defence Agency.

It also opened the door to free trade deals between Ukraine and the EU, dependent on Kiev implementing judicial and financial reforms. Mr Yanukovich, however, favoured a deal with Russia.

Moscow does not formally recognise either republic and remains committed to the Minsk Agreement, which aimed to stop the conflict and reintegrate the territories in exchange for more autonomy, but the deal has never been implemented.

Mr Zyuganov says that official recognition of Ukraine’s eastern separatist regions as independent states was now necessary as the only way to stop the “endless violence and killings in their territory.”

The faction is the largest opposition group in the Russian parliament and the country’s second-largest political party, with 57 MPs.

The communist leader said that all the leaders of parliamentary factions are ready to support the recognition of the independence of the republics.

Tensions have continued to escalate in the region, with Britain and the US warning of Russian aggression as it held joint military exercises in Belarus.

Both Britain and the US have flooded Ukraine with tons of “lethal aid” and sent troops and mercenaries to train far-right militia, which have now joined the 120,000 Ukrainian troops amassed at the border.