Russia's State Duma, the lower house of parliament, gave the greenlight to a bill on Tuesday on the recognition of the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk republics in east Ukraine's breakaway region of Donbass.

The bill will be sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately for his final approval.

At a plenary session, the lawmakers supported the document requesting Russian President Vladimir Putin to recognize "the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR)" and "the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR)" as independent and sovereign states, the State Duma said in a statement. 

"Our citizens and compatriots living in Donbass need help and support. In this regard, the deputies believe that the recognition will create grounds for guaranteeing the safety and protection of the inhabitants of the republics from external threats," Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of Russia's lower house of parliament, said in the statement. 

A total of 351 deputies voted in favor of the bill and 16 others opposed it, TASS news agency reported. 

Meanwhile, part of the armed forces participating in joint drills with Belarus will be pulled back, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

When the combat training activities are completed, the Russian troops, as always, will return to their locations of permanent deployment, the ministry's spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. 

As tensions on the Ukrainian situation keep mounting, multiple countries have been engaged in shuttle diplomacy, trying to de-escalate the crisis.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz headed to Moscow on Tuesday to meet with Putin.

Russian-German energy cooperation is a priority for Moscow, which views Berlin as one of its main partners, Putin told Scholz ahead of talks in Moscow on Tuesday, saying that gas exporter Russia was a reliable energy supplier. 

Since November, Kyiv and some Western countries have accused Russia of assembling heavy troops near the Ukrainian border with a possible intention of "invasion."

Russia denied the accusation, saying that Russia has the right to mobilize troops within its borders to defend its territory as NATO's activities constitute a threat to Russia's border security. 

(Cover: The State Duma, Moscow, Russia. /CFP)