Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine on Monday, just hours after he formally recognized the independence of two Moscow-backed breakaway regions in the eastern part of the country.

The order will likely be seen as another escalation of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, on a day when tensions rose as Putin moved forward with the formal recognition of two breakaway regions and delivered a lengthy speech about the relationship between the two nations.

Putin framed the troop movement as a “peacekeeping” effort in both regions. His decision to recognize both regions was seen by the United States and its European allies as a dramatic provocation and part of a pretext to invade Ukraine and led to the U.S. and European Union announcing sanctions.

Many experts believed Moscow’s formal recognition would effectively scuttle a previous ceasefire agreement that some Western allies hoped could provide a route out of the crisis.

In a wide-ranging televised speech Monday evening, Putin described Ukraine as a historical part of Russia that was illegitimately taken from Moscow and is now run by a “puppet regime” controlled by the U.S. and the West.