By Reality Check team
BBC News
Image source, Getty ImagesRussian President Vladimir Putin has ordered troops into two rebel-held regions in eastern Ukraine, after recognising them as independent states.
In a long, late-night televised address from the Kremlin, Mr Putin sought to justify his actions by making a series of claims about Ukraine.
“The so-called civilised world… prefers to ignore it as if there were none of this horror, genocide that almost four million people are being subjected to”
President Putin was talking about the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, claiming Russian-speaking residents there are being subjected to “genocide” – a term he has used before, currently being echoed on Russian state television.
Image source, Getty ImagesA memorial to victims of shelling in a neighbourhood near Donetsk, eastern Ukraine
The United Nations Genocide Convention,…
