PARIS, Feb 15 - France's foreign minister said on Tuesday that if Moscow recognized two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent it would be an "attack without weapons,” Reuters reported.

Russia's lower house of parliament voted earlier on Tuesday to ask President Vladimir Putin to recognize the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, in the area known as the Donbass, where separatist forces have been fighting the Ukrainian army since 2014.