February 22, 2022 Ukraine-Russia crisis news

Australia is the latest country to announce sanctions against Russia, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison unveiling new measures Wednesday in response to the “aggression by Russia against Ukraine.”

Morrison said at a news conference that Australia will first enact travel bans and targeted financial sanctions on eight members of the Security Council of the Russian Federation — a group of top state officials and defense heads.

Canberra will also impose “strong” economic sanctions against the separatist-held pro-Moscow regions of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, which Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized as independent on Monday. The sanctions target transport, energy, telecommunications, oil, gas and mineral reserves, Morrison said.

He added that he will extend existing sanctions on Russian-held Crimea and Sevastopol to include Luhansk and Donetsk.

Australia will also move to sanction several Russian banks.

Morrison added that Australia always stands up to “bullies,” and that he will speak to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Wednesday.

Moscow’s ambassador to the United States has hit back at the imposition of sanctions on Russia by President Joe Biden, suggesting the move would hurt global financial and energy markets as well as ordinary citizens.

“I don’t remember a single day when our country lived without any restrictions from the Western world. We learned how to work in such conditions. And not only survive, but also develop our state,” said Ambassador Anatoly Antonov, according to a post on the Russian Embassy Facebook page early Wednesday.

“There is no doubt that the sanctions imposed against us will hurt the global financial and energy markets,” he added. “The United States will not be left out, where ordinary citizens will feel the full consequences of rising prices.”

“With regard to Moscow, new US sanctions will not solve anything, Russia has learned to work and develop under restrictions.”

Context on the sanctions: Biden laid out what he called a “first tranche” of US sanctions against Russia for its actions in eastern Ukraine, including on two large financial institutions, Russian sovereign debt and Russian elites and their family members. He said the sanctions would effectively “cut off Russia’s government from Western finance.”

Biden pledged that his administration is using “every tool at our disposal” to limit the effect on gas prices in the US, acknowledging that Americans will likely see rising prices at the pump in the coming months.

Read more about the US sanctions here.

Japan will impose sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday.

Kishida said Japan will suspend the issuance of visas and freeze the assets of people involved in recognizing the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, the two separatist-held pro-Moscow regions in eastern Ukraine.

Kishida did not specify names or how the sanctions would be carried out.

He also said Japan will ban imports and exports to and from Donetsk and Luhansk, and prohibit the issuance and circulation of Russian bonds in Japan. Kishida added that the details of the sanctions will be discussed further.  

Kishida said Russia’s actions had “clearly” violated Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and international law and urged Russia to resolve the situation through a diplomatic process.

Minutes after US President Joe Biden announced new sanctions on Russian banks and elites Tuesday, a senior FBI cyber official asked US businesses and local governments to be mindful of the potential for ransomware attacks as the crisis over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine deepens. 

Russia is a “permissive operating environment” for cybercriminals, one that “is not going to get any smaller” as Russia’s confrontation with the West over Ukraine continues and further sanctions are announced, the FBI’s David Ring said on a phone briefing with private executives and state and local officials, according to two people who were on the call.  

Ring asked state and local officials and business executives to consider how ransomware attacks could disrupt the provision of critical services, the people on the call said. 

US officials continue to say there are “no specific, credible” threats to the US homeland tied to tensions with Russia over Ukraine, but they are preaching vigilance.

The willingness of Russian-speaking cybercriminals to disrupt US critical infrastructure has been a US concern for years, but came to a head last year when a ransomware attack forced major fuel transporter Colonial Pipeline to shut down for days.  

The phone call was one of a series of recurring briefings that FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials have had for US companies and local governments in the last two months in light of US tensions with Russia over Ukraine. It was scheduled before it was clear that Biden was addressing Russia’s latest moves in Ukraine on Tuesday.

The US President announced the “first tranche” of sanctions against Russian entities for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to recognize two breakaway regions in Ukraine and send troops there.                   

The US could also see “a possible increase in cyber threat activity” from Russian state-backed hackers as a result of those sanctions, Ring said, according to the people on the call. 

“DHS has been engaging in an outreach campaign to ensure that public and private sector partners are aware of evolving cybersecurity risks and taking steps to increase their cybersecurity preparedness,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.

CNN has requested comment from the FBI. 

The extortion of Colonial Pipeline underscored for Biden administration officials the economic and national security threat posed by ransomware. The incident triggered long lines at gas stations in multiple US states and prompted Biden to call on Russian President Vladimir Putin to rein in cybercriminals operating from Russian soil. 

More background: While ransomware attacks on US organizations by Russian-speaking hackers have continued, Russian authorities have dangled the prospect of cracking down on some groups in recent months, as the standoff of Ukraine brewed.  

The US believes Russia has detained the person responsible for the Colonial Pipeline hack, but any cooperation between the two governments on cybercrime could be elusive if relations further deteriorate over Ukraine, according to some analysts. 

After the cyberattacks on Ukrainian government and banking websites last week that the Biden administration blamed on Russia’s military intelligence directorate, US officials continue to see Russian cyber operations as likely playing a role in any further military invasion.  

In the event of a larger conflict between Russia and Ukraine, US officials are concerned that transportation networks and broadcast media in Ukraine could be shut down by kinetic or cyberattacks, Matthew Hackner, an official in DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, said on Tuesday’s phone briefing, according to people on the call.

Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba says he knows what Russian President Vladimir Putin’s long-term objective is.

“His ultimate goal is to destroy Ukraine. He’s not interested in parts of Ukraine. He is not interested in even keeping the entire country under his control,” Kubela said during a live interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Putin “wants the idea of the Ukrainian statehood to fail. This is his objective.”

Kuleba’s comments come one day after President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into separatist-held parts of eastern Ukraine and signed decrees recognizing the independence of the Moscow-backed regions.

“What I know for certain, and this was eloquently proved, regretfully, in his address yesterday, is that he hates [the] Ukrainian statehood, he believes that Ukraine has no right to exist,” Kuleba said of Putin. 

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday described Russia’s maneuverings in Ukraine as “the beginning of a Russian invasion.” Biden announced what he labeled “the first tranche of sanctions” to punish Moscow, including on two large financial institutions, Russian sovereign debt and Russian elites and their family members. 

Though Kuleba supports the sanctions as laid out by Biden, calling them an “important” message, he maintains they are insufficient as the situation stands now.

“No sanctions will be enough until Russian boots withdraw from Ukrainian soil,” said Kuleba on CNN. “This is [the] fundamental principle, that we have to keep putting pressure on Russia and we in Ukraine proceed from the fact that the sanctions announced today by President Biden is just the beginning of the process of deterring president Putin and making him withdraw.”

On the topic of specific forthcoming sanctions, Kuleba suggested no single option or possibility should be left off the global table.

“We want every instrument available to be used in order to stop Putin,” he said. “If the price of saving a country is the most, harshest sanctions possible, then we should go for the harshest sanctions possible.”

While Kuleba told Tapper that the moving of Russian troops into the Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Donbas region would mark another crossing of a line by Putin, he noted that the ongoing conflict manifests itself along a multitude of fronts.

“We should be aware of the simple fact: this is hybrid warfare. Russia can attack physically, but also Russian can attack us in cyberspace … We are in a dialogue with partners including the United States about the identification of these red lines which will be responded with sanctions,” he said, adding, “I want to make it clear that we have to get ready to act in a very swift manner because the situation can change literally every hour.”

Asked by Tapper to explain why the United States — which sits thousands of miles from Ukraine — ought to be invested in the conflict, Kuleba pointed to three key factors.

In summing up his explanation as to why the US involvement in the conflict is appropriate, Kuleba said: “All in all … Americans should be interested in keeping the world order as it stands and the future of this order is being decided right now in Ukraine.”

Read more about the CNN interview with the Ukrainian foreign minister here.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, has requested an all- senator briefing on the Ukraine situation from the Biden administration, according to spokesman for Schumer.

Details of where and when the briefing may occur were not immediately available.

The Senate is in recess this week, as is the House.

The request comes as the Biden administration unveiled new sanctions to respond to Moscow, with President Biden describing the events now underway in Ukraine as “the beginning of a Russian invasion.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said nobody can predict the future of the Nord Stream 2gas pipeline, following Russia’s actions in eastern Ukraine, after earlier halting the progression of the pipeline. 

Speaking in a televised address on German television on Tuesday evening, local time, Scholz said, “We are having a situation right now when nobody should bet on it [Nord Stream].” He added, “We are far away from putting [the pipeline] into operation.”

Earlier Tuesday, Germany said it was halting certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline following Moscow’s actions in eastern Ukraine on Monday. The 750-mile pipeline was completed in September but has not yet received final certification from German regulators. Without that, natural gas cannot flow through the Baltic Sea pipeline from Russia to Germany.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and several EU countries have opposed the pipeline since it was announced in 2015, warning the project would increase Moscow’s influence in Europe.

Nord Stream 2 could deliver 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. That’s more than 50% of Germany’s annual consumption and could be worth as much as $15 billion to Gazprom, the Russian state owned company that controls the pipeline.

Speaking Tuesday evening, Scholz said what happened this week has been “a great disappointment.” He said, “Putin has built up enough troops along the Ukrainian borders to really be able to fully invade the country.”

The chancellor said he believes the Russian president “actually intends to change some of Europe’s geography and that is very threatening.”

Pointing out that Europeans had agreed on not changing the borders again, Scholz said, “Who is looking back in history will find many borders that used to be different. If all of them will be discussed again, then we will have a very non-peaceful time ahead of us and therefore we have to come back to country’s sovereignty and borders that are not violated.”

“What Putin has done is a breach of international law that we cannot and will not accept,” Scholz added.

CNN’s Charles Riley and Julia Horowitz contributed reporting to this post.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that “the door to diplomacy still remains open,” with Russia, even as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced he’d no longer meet with his Russian counterpart following the administration’s conclusion that Russian aggression into neighboring Ukraine constituted an invasion.

“As I think our secretary of state conveyed, it isn’t the appropriate time, as Russia is taking escalatory steps and preparing to invade, for him to meet with the foreign minister,” Psaki told CNN’s MJ Lee, adding that any summit with US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin was only agreed to in principle, “but there were never any specific plans or timeline really in the works for that.”

In remarks from the US State Department Tuesday, Blinken announced he’d no longer meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva this week, the latest sign that diplomatic avenues with Russia over Ukraine are quickly closing.

According to Blinken, he sent a letter to Lavrov Tuesday to inform him of the decision.

Moving forward, Psaki said, the US remains open to diplomacy in concert with European partners “once, if and when, [Russia] deescalate.”

The President, she added, is “always going to be open to having leader to leader conversations, but this isn’t the time to do it, when, and we said this at the time as well, when they are, when President Putin is overseeing the invasion of a sovereign country.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin can still be stopped if Ukraine and its allies “act in a very reserved way and keep mounting pressure on” the Russian leader.  

“What stops him is only our unity and resolve. And we can stop him,” Kuleba said at a news conference in Washington, urging the pressure against Russia should “continue to be stepped up.” 

He said that Ukraine doesn’t have any plans to evacuate Mariupol — a port city located in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.  

“We have two plans. Plan A is to utilize every tool of diplomacy to deter Russia and prevent further escalation. And if that fails, Plan B is to fight for every inch of our land, and every city and every village. Then, to fight until we win, of course,” Kuleba said.  

He went on to call the latest US sanctions against Russia announced Tuesday “specific” and “painful” for Moscow.  

Responding to a question from a reporter asking “if what we’ve seen so far is a minor invasion […] and it only warrants lesser US sanctions,” Kuleba said: “There is no such thing as minor, middle or major invasion. Invasion is an invasion.” 

The foreign minister said that Ukraine becoming a NATO member is a choice of the people of Ukraine, adding that “no one but Ukraine and NATO will decide on the future of our relationship.” 

“It has never been about NATO for Putin. It’s just an excuse. Even if you do nothing, President Putin will find a reason to accuse us of doing something,” he continued.  

Calling Ukraine a country that exists in a “security vacuum,” he said Kyiv “did a lot to strengthen global security by abandoning” its nuclear arsenal.  

“That was a huge contribution. And we expect the principle of reciprocity and equally huge contribution to ensuring Ukraine security,” he added.  

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s remarks confirm that “his plan all along has been to invade Ukraine,” and that Russia’s issue with NATO has just been “an excuse to mask the fact that what this is about is President Putin’s view that Ukraine is not a sovereign country.”

“Now that we’ve heard it directly from President Putin himself, it confirms what we’ve been saying: that he did not send more than 150,000 troops to the Ukrainian border because of benign military exercises, or to respond to threatened aggression from Ukraine, or to stop a fabricated genocide by Ukraine or any other manufactured reason,” Blinken said at a joint news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Blinken said that Russia “hasn’t been serious to date” with its pursuit of diplomacy to resolve the crisis it created, but that despite the “renewed Russian invasion,” the US and its partners would still be open to diplomacy “to the extent that there is anything we can do to avert an even worse case scenario, an all-out assault on all of Ukraine.”

“President Putin’s deeply disturbing speech yesterday, and his statements today, made clear to the world how he views Ukraine: not as a sovereign nation with the right to territorial integrity and independence, but rather as a creation of Russia, and therefore subordinate to Russia,” said Blinken.

Blinken added, “this has never been about Ukraine and NATO per se,” and that Putin’s real goal is “reconstituting the Russian empire, or short of that, a sphere of influence, or short of that, the total neutrality of countries surrounding Russia.”

“This is the greatest threat to security in Europe since World War II,” Blinken added.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the world Tuesday to “hit” the Russian economy “hard” for its “new act of aggression against Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

“The world must respond with all its economic might to punish Russia for the crimes it has already committed, and ahead of the crimes it plans to commit,” Kuleba said while speaking alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a joint press conference in Washington. “Hit Russia’s economy now and hit it hard,” he added.

While welcoming the latest US sanctions against Russia, Kuleba added that “Ukraine strongly believes the time for sanctions is now.”

“We are at a critical juncture for the security of Europe, as well as the international peace and security more broadly,” he continued.  

On the topic of Moscow recognizing the independence of two pro-Russian separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, Kuleba said his country “does not and will never recognize this absurdity.”

Kuleba argued that what Putin “recognized is his direct responsibility for the war against Ukraine and an unprovoked and unjustified war on another sovereign state in Europe, which Russia now intensifies.”

Kuleba went on to blame Putin for “attacking the world order” with his latest actions.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Tuesday that his nation has two plans: diplomacy, and if that fails, fighting to defend themselves.

“Plan A is to utilize every tool of diplomacy to deter Russia and prevent further escalation,” Kuleba said at a news conference alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the US State Department.

“And if that fails, plan B is to fight for every inch of our land, in every city and every village – to fight until we win, of course,” he said.

Kuleba said Ukraine has no plans to evacuate Mariupol and Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he called off his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The leaders were set to meet Thursday.

“Last week, I agreed to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week, on Feb. 24, to discuss our country’s respective concerns about European security. But only if Russia did not invade Ukraine. Now that we see the invasion is beginning and Russia has made clear its wholesale rejection of diplomacy, it does not make sense to go forward with that meeting at this time. I consulted with our allies and partners. All agree. Today I sent Foreign Minister Lavrov a letter informing him of this,” Blinken said during a joint news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Blinken’s announcement comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized two pro-Moscow separatist regions in Ukraine as independent and announced he would deploy “peacekeeping” forces there.

US President Joe Biden and top US officials down said Tuesday that Putin’s moves marked the beginning of a new Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Biden announced a first tranche of sanctions in response.

Blinken said the US “remain committed to diplomacy if Russia is prepared to take demonstrable steps to provide the international community any degree of confidence that it’s serious about de-escalating and finding a diplomatic solution.”

The official noted that the US will proceed in coordination with its allies and partners “based on Russia’s actions and the facts on the ground.”

“But we will not allow Russia to claim the pretense of diplomacy at the same time it accelerates its march down the path of conflict and war,” he continued.

More background: Now that their meeting is off, the cancellation signals that the Biden administration no longer believes that Russia is at all serious about pursuing diplomacy. 

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also announced his meeting with Lavrov, that had been scheduled for Friday, was no longer occurring. 

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler and Jeremy Herb contributed reporting to this post.

Watch U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken explain why he canceled his meeting with the Russian foreign minister:

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01:53 - Source: cnn

The Biden administration is focused on minimizing effects on domestic oil markets following a tranche of sanctions against Russia were announced Tuesday, with one senior administration official telling reporters the White House was “quite deliberate” in ensuring “the pain of our sanctions is targeted at the Russian economy, not ours.”

“None of the measures are designed to disrupt the flow of energy to global markets, and we are now executing a plan, in coordination with major oil consumers and oil producers, towards our collective interest to secure the stability of global energy supplies,” the official told reporters on a briefing call.

Biden acknowledged Americans might see rising costs at the pump in remarks earlier Tuesday, pledging his administration was using “every tool at our disposal” to prevent rising prices.

The official also pointed to the decision, overnight, to halt production of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which they called “Putin’s prized pipeline,” as evidence of emblematic of the severe cost to the Russian economy Monday’s actions provoked. 

“[Putin] poured $11 billion into building the pipeline. It would have provided billions of dollars each year in revenues,” the official said. “That is now shut down, after very close consultations overnight with Germany.”

Still, the administration says, rising gas prices are not the direct result of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline decision, but over fears Putin might weaponize energy supply to “hold the world hostage.”

The official added that today’s decision serves to “reduce Europe’s addiction to Russian gas,” adding that the US will work in concert with allies to surge national gas supplies from other sources in an effort to address shortages.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine announced Tuesday that reservists would be called up for military training but said there would be no general mobilization of the armed forces, following Russia’s recognition of areas in eastern Ukraine held by separatists as independent states.

In a national address, Zelensky said he was still pursuing diplomacy as a way out of the crisis, and welcomed the offer by Turkey to broker talks between Ukraine and Russia. He also called for a summit of all permanent members of the UN Security Council along with Germany and Turkey. 

Zelensky also referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that the Minsk Agreements designed to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine no longer applied, saying that Ukraine remained committed to seeking its sovereignty and integrity.

Zelensky welcomed the sanctions announced by western governments against Russia and referenced German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s decision to suspend certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which would bring Russian liquid natural gas to Germany and other European markets. 

Zelensky also announced what he called a program of economic patriotism that would include reducing sales tax on gasoline and incentives for investment. He acknowledged that the crisis had caused economic contraction and said the government’s goal was to ensure the country’s economic independence, especially in the energy sector. The president said he would meet 150 major Ukrainian businesses on Wednesday to persuade them to stay in Ukraine.

He ended his address by saying, “We desire peace and calm but if we are quiet today then tomorrow we will disappear.”

Global stock markets tumbled and crude oil prices surged to $99 per barrel on Tuesday after Russia ordered troops into parts of eastern Ukraine.

Wall Street also fell as traders returned from the holiday weekend, but stocks finished off their lows of the day.

The Dow briefly dropped more than 700 points, or 2%, in late afternoon trading before recovering to close down nearly 483 points, or 1.4%. 

The S&P 500 finished the day 1% lower, while the Nasdaq shed 1.2%.

See where the price of oil stands in the chart below:

The sanctions President Biden announced Tuesday amount to “only the sharp edge of the pain we can inflict,” a senior US administration official said, suggesting the President is ready to go much further should an invasion of Ukraine escalate. 

“This is the beginning of an invasion, and therefore this is the beginning of our response,” the official said, insisting the package the US unveiled did amount to harsh punishment for Vladimir Putin’s actions but did not reflect the full extent of the steps the US is willing to take.

“If Putin escalates further, we will escalate further using both financial sanctions and export controls, which we have yet to unveil,” the official said.

Keeping the toughest sanctions in reserve is meant to potentially deter the bloody and large-scale attack on Ukraine that US officials have been predicting for several weeks.

“Sanctions are meant to serve a higher purpose, which is to deter and prevent, so we want to prevent a large scale invasion of Ukraine that involves the seizure of major cities, including Kyiv,” the official said.

“We want to prevent large scale human suffering, possibly tens of thousands of lives that could be lost in a full scale conflict. And we want to prevent Putin from installing a puppet government that bends to his wishes and denies Ukraine the freedom to set its own course and choose its own destiny. That’s what this is all about,” the official continued.

More on the sanctions: The official said the blocking sanctions Biden announced on two Russian financial institutions meant they wouldn’t be able to make transactions with the United States or Europe. The banks amount to a glorified piggy bank for the Kremlin,” the official said.

The official listed three Russian elites who also are coming under sanctions (names to come soon) and said they would “share in the pain” inflicted on the Russian government.

“Other Russian elites and their family members are now on notice that additional actions could be taken on them as well,” the official said.

The official listed three Russian elites who also are coming under sanctions and said they would “share in the pain” inflicted on the Russian government. They are Sergey Kiriyenko, the First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia, and his son Vladimir; Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), and his son Dennis; and Petr Fradkov, CEO of Promsvyazbank.

“Other Russian elites and their family members are now on notice that additional actions could be taken on them as well,” the official said.

Hungarian Defense Minister Tibor Benko announced Tuesday that Hungary will deploy troops to its eastern border with Ukraine, for both humanitarian tasks and border protection, in response to Ukraine’s escalating crisis with Russia.

“We must prepare for every eventuality in the region by the eastern border, including humanitarian tasks and border protection,” Benko told reporters, according to the Hungarian government press office.

“Therefore, we are regrouping army personnel and military equipment to the eastern region of the country,” Benko added.

Benko went on to stress that “Hungary wants peace” and supports a diplomatic resolution.  

Additionally, Benko said that Hungarian troops will also prepare for the arrival of refugees in anticipation of the situation in Ukraine escalating even more and expanding outside the East.

More background: Though Hungary is a member of NATO, Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Russian President Vladimir Putin remain allies and share a disdain for the Ukrainian government.  

Despite relations being “burdened with tensions […] Hungary has always expressed support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Tuesday before meeting his EU counterparts in Brussels, according to a government press release.

The US will move F-35 fighter jets and Apache attack helicopters already in Europe to the Baltic states and NATO’s eastern flank, according to a senior defense official, following US President Joe Biden’s announcement that the administration will bolster the defenses of NATO allies.

In addition, approximately 800 troops constituting an infantry battalion task force will move from Italy to the Baltic region, the official said. 

Four F-35 fighter jets from Germany will deploy to the Baltic states, while another four will deploy to NATO’s southeastern flank. Twenty Apache helicopters from Germany will head for the Baltic states, and another 12 Apaches from Greece deploy to Poland. 

These forces are expected to be in place later this week, the official said. Biden said earlier Tuesday that he wanted to be “clear” that these are “totally defensive moves on our part.”

The US has approximately 90,000 troops in Europe on permanent and rotational orders.

The Defense Ministry of Ukraine says that through 9 p.m. local time in Ukraine, territories under Ukrainian control have been shelled 80 times from the pro-Russian self-declared republics of Luhansk and Donetsk.

The information comes via the Defense Ministry’s latest statement on violations of the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.

Of the 80 incidents, 58 involved weapons prohibited under the Minsk agreements, which stipulate that heavy weapons should not be within 50 kilometers (about 31 miles) of the frontlines.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Minsk Agreements “no longer exist,” adding, “What is there to implement if we have recognized these two entities?”

The Defense Ministry recorded 84 ceasefire violations on Monday.

As part of Tuesday’s attacks, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry says that one soldier had been killed and six others have been injured.

According to the ministry, the town of Shchastya — near Luhansk — has sustained some of the heaviest shelling.

The ministry went on to accuse the Russian-backed separatists of deploying heavy weapons “within settlements to provoke Ukrainian defenders to return fire.”

The White House says US President Joe Biden met Tuesday with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba of Ukraine “to reaffirm the United States’ commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

According to the White House, Biden “updated Foreign Minister Kuleba on the United States’ response to Russia’s decision to recognize the purported ‘independence’ of the so-called DNR and LNR regions of Ukraine, including the Executive Order issued last night and new sanctions announced today,” pledging to continue security assistance and economic support to Ukraine.

“President Biden reiterated the readiness of the United States, in close cooperation with our Allies and partners, to respond swiftly and decisively to any further Russian aggression against Ukraine,” the White House says.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed during a call Tuesday that Russia’s actions “don’t just threaten Ukraine’s sovereignty but are a blatant attack on freedom and democracy,” according to a UK government statement. 

In a call about the “chilling” developments in Ukraine, the leaders “agreed they needed to continue work in lockstep to target Russian individuals and entities bankrolling President Putin’s aggressive approach,” the statement read.   

Johnson in the call said Putin’s “actions were a gross violation of international law, and by sending forces into Eastern Ukraine he had ripped up the Budapest and Minsk agreements.” 

On the heels of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order of Russian troops into two separatist pro-Moscow regions in eastern Ukraine, President Biden announced a new round of sanctions against Russia. 

“I’m announcing the first tranche of sanctions to impose costs on Russia in response to their actions yesterday,” Biden said in remarks from the White House. “These have been closely coordinated with our allies and partners and we’ll continue to escalate sanctions if Russia escalates.”

Here are the sanctions as detailed by Biden:

Biden also noted that if Russia “continues its aggression,” additional sanctions could follow.

The US President pledged his administration was using “every tool at our disposal” to limit the effect of sanctions against Russia on domestic gas prices, acknowledging that Americans will likely see rising prices at the pump in the coming months.

“As I said last week, defending freedom will have costs, for us as well and here at home,” Biden said. “We need to be honest about that. But as we do this, I’m going to take robust action to make sure the pain of our sanctions is targeted at the Russian economy, not ours.”

Moving forward, Biden said the administration is “closely monitoring energy supplies for any disruption.”

Last week, Biden signaled Americans should expect to see rising prices in the event of further sanctions against Russia, currently the second largest oil producer in the world. JPMorgan has warned of $120 or even $150 per barrel crude oil if Russian exports are disrupted. The current price is less than $100 per barrel.

Here’s a look at how the price of oil has changed over time:

CNN’s DJ Judd contributed reporting to this post.

President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he has authorized additional movements of US forces and military equipment in Europe to “strengthen” Baltic allies in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, following Russian President Vladimir Putin ordering troops into two separatist regions of Ukraine.

“Today, in response to Russia’s admission that it will not withdraw its forces from Belarus, I have authorized additional movements of US forces and equipment, already stationed in Europe to strengthen our Baltic allies: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,” Biden said Tuesday in the East Room.

Biden said he wanted to be clear that these are “totally defensive moves on our part.”

“We have no intention of fighting Russia. We want to send an unmistakable message though: that the United States together with our allies will defend every inch of NATO territory. And abide by the commitments we made to NATO,” Biden added.

President Biden announced new round of sanctions against Russia during his remarks from the White House on the Ukraine crisis and the latest actions announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Biden said that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will “not move forward” as a part of the latest sanctions from the US and its’ allies.

“Because of Russia’s actions we’ve worked with Germany to ensure that Nord Stream 2 will not, as I promised, will not move forward. As Russia contemplates its next move we have our next move prepared as well. Russia will pay a steeper price if it continues its aggression, including additional sanctions,” Biden said.

The 750-mile pipeline was completed in September but has not yet received final certification from German regulators. When up and running, it would boost deliveries of gas directly from Russia to Germany.

On Tuesday, Germany said it was halting certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline following Moscow’s actions in eastern Ukraine on Monday.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and several EU countries have opposed the pipeline since it was announced in 2015, warning the project would increase Moscow’s influence in Europe.

Nord Stream 2 could deliver 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. That’s more than 50% of Germany’s annual consumption and could be worth as much as $15 billion to Gazprom, the Russian state owned company that controls the pipeline.

US President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech on Monday a “twisted rewrite of history” in which he attacked Ukraine’s “right to exist.”

“I’m not going to go into it, nothing in Putin’s lengthy remarks indicate interest in pursuing real dialogue on European security in the year 2022. He directly attacked Ukraine’s right to exist. He indirectly threatened territory formerly held by Russia, including nations that today are thriving democracies and members of NATO,” Biden said.

Biden continued, saying Putin “explicitly threatened war unless his extreme demands were met.” The President said that there’s no question that Russia is “the aggressor” against Ukraine. 

Biden said he believes that “there is still time to avert the worst-case scenario” with diplomacy.

“The United States and our allies and partners remain open to diplomacy if it is serious. When all is said and done, we’re going to judge Russia by its actions, not its words. And whatever Russia does next, we’re ready to respond with unity, clarity, and conviction.” 

The President concluded his remarks, saying, “I’m hoping diplomacy is still available.” 

US President Joe Biden described events now underway in Ukraine as “the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine” as he unveiled harsh new sanctions to punish Moscow.

“I’m going to begin to impose sanctions in response, far beyond the steps we and our allies and partners implemented in 2014. And if Russia goes further with this invasion, we stand prepared to go further, as with sanctions,” Biden said in White House remarks.

“Who in the Lord’s name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belongs to his neighbors?” Biden asked. “This is a flagrant violation of international law and demands a firm response from the international community.”

Biden’s description of Russia’s actions in Ukraine immediately ups the stakes for his response. He and other senior officials have vowed to impose severe economic consequences if Russian troops cross into Ukraine, including on members of Putin’s inner-circle and Russian financial institutions.

“We’ve said all along, and I’ve told Putin face to face a month — more than a month ago, that we would act together in the moment Russia moved against Ukraine,” Biden said. “Russia has now undeniably moved against Ukraine by declaring these independent states.”

But Biden is also expecting to reserve some of his toughest measures, hoping to use them should Putin wage the type of bloody and sustained attack US officials have been warning about for weeks. 

The administration began describing events in eastern Ukraine as an “invasion” earlier Tuesday after assessing the situation on the ground there, according to administration officials.

The White House declined to provide specific intelligence that might further explain the shift in tone.

President Biden addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin recognizing two separatist-held regions in eastern Ukraine and said that the action is “the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

“Yesterday Vladimir Putin recognized two regions of Ukraine as independent states. And he bizarrely asserted that these regions are longer a part of Ukraine and their sovereign territory,” Biden said during his remarks from the White House on the Ukraine crisis.

“To put it simply, Russia announced it is carving out a big chunk of Ukraine. Last night, Putin authorized Russian forces to deploy into these regions. Today, he asserted these regions are actually extend deeper than the two areas he recognized, claiming large areas currently under the jurisdiction of the Ukraine government,” he said.

“He’s setting up a rationale to take more territory by force, in my view, and if we listen to his speech last night, and many of you did, I know, he’s setting up a rationale to go much further. This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine,” the President said.

US President Joe Biden is delivering remarks on the Ukraine crisis from the White House.

Today’s remarks are his first public appearance since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops to deploy to separatist regions of Eastern Ukraine on Monday.

Biden’s remarks come amid a hardening of the White House language on Russian’s actions Tuesday morning.

“We think this is, yes, the beginning of an invasion, Russia’s latest invasion into Ukraine,” US principal deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said in an interview on CNN’s “New Day,” adding the sanctions imposed Monday were the merely the “beginning” of the US response.

“An invasion is an invasion and that is what is underway,” Finer said. “I am calling it an invasion.”

That was further than US officials were willing to go on Monday evening, and reflected the growing sense among Biden’s team that a fuller assault on Ukrainian territory would begin shortly. Officials said continued signs of Russian aggression overnight led to a change in tone.

Read more here about Biden’s remarks and where things stand in the crisis.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called for the need to rebuild security mechanism in Europe as he and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced the EU’s first sanction package against Russia at a joint news conference in Paris on Tuesday, following Moscow’s decision to recognize the independence of the two breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine. 

“There are no longer any rules for stability and security in Europe today,” Le Drian said. “The tools, the treaties, the legal acts that, until now, have ensured stability in Europe are all obsolete.” 

Le Drian said that the latest sanctions package is only a first step. The EU will impose more sanctions if Russia further violates Ukraine’s sovereignty. 

“This is a first train, there are other ammunitions, to use the term of Josep, that are in the hold,” he said. 

He also announced that his meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, originally scheduled for Friday in the French capital, has been called off due to Russia’s recent actions. 

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Russia’s recognition of two separatist-held regions in eastern Ukraine as independent states “directly undermines Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” 

Austin said the “latest invasion” of Ukraine “is threatening the peace and security and prosperity of Ukraine, and of the transatlantic community,” and that the US would impose additional “severe economic costs as events dictate.”

The defense secretary is meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba at the Pentagon today.

Austin called the US support for Ukraine “unwavering” in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin “attacking the very notion of independent Ukraine.”

“Mr. Putin can still avoid a full-blown tragic war of choice,” said Austin, praising Ukraine’s “measured response” to the renewed invasion and continued pursuit of a diplomatic resolution.

Kuleba responded that though he is on a diplomatic mission to the US, “these days diplomacy means also defense.”

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs cited “threats of physical violence in a lengthy statement announcing a decision to pull diplomatic staff from Ukraine.

“Since 2014, the Russian Embassy in Kiev and the Consulates General of our country in Odessa, Lviv and Kharkiv have been subjected to repeated attacks,” the statement read. “Provocations were regularly staged against the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Kyiv, harm was caused to the health of its head, and damage was also caused to the property of the Center. Russian diplomats also became objects of aggressive actions. They received threats of physical violence. Their vehicles were set on fire. Contrary to their obligations under the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic and Consular Relations, the Kyiv authorities did not react to what was happening,” the statement said.

The statement was issued shortly after Russia’s Federation Council approved a request by Russian President Vladimir Putin to deploy troops abroad, amid concerns over possible war with Ukraine.

Russia’s actions on Monday “are the beginning of the latest Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Tuesday.

“They are utterly unprovoked and unjustified,” Sherman said of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recognition of the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and its deployment of “peacekeeping” forces to the region. 

Sherman’s language – and that of Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer – acknowledging the moves as an invasion are a shift from the inconclusive language used by a senior administration official on Monday.

That official refused to say whether they considered the actions a further invasion, despite being repeatedly pressed by reporters during a call, and emphasized that Russian forces had already been operating in those regions. 

Sherman said that “in the coming hours, the United States will announce significant additional sanctions and other measures that will impose severe costs and consequences on the Russian Federation.” 

“We expect our allies and partners will take additional, coordinated steps as well to respond to Russia’s unprovoked and unacceptable aggression against Ukraine,” she said.

Sherman said the Russian President “is testing our international system, he is testing our resolve. He wants to demonstrate that through force, he can make a farce of the international order.” 

“In this moment, no one, not one of us, can stand on the sidelines. We must remain united in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity—and, indeed, of the right of all sovereign nations to choose their own paths, free from the threat of coercion, subversion, or invasion,” she said.

“The United States continues to believe that the diplomatic path is the only way for responsible nations — for great powers — to resolve their legitimate differences. That path is still available to Russia. It is still available to us all. But we can only make progress in the context of de-escalation, not invasion. Of peace, not war,” Sherman said.

Russia is pulling its diplomatic staff from Ukraine “to protect their lives and safety,” the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday. 

“In the current circumstances, our first priority is to take care of Russian diplomats and employees of the Embassy and Consulates General,” the Ministry said in a lengthy statement.

“To protect their lives and safety, the Russian leadership has decided to evacuate the personnel of Russian foreign missions in Ukraine, a measure that will be implemented in the very near future,” the statement added.

Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday that he is “convinced that there are more Russian forces today than yesterday” across the border in Ukraine.

“I can’t talk about intelligence, but I will say this. I am convinced that there are more Russian forces today than there were yesterday,” he told CNN’s John King on Tuesday, adding, “At the end of the day, it’s been very clear — (Vladimir) Putin has told the world what he’s going to do. He’s told them he’s going to recognize these areas. The next thing is annexation of these areas and then he’s going to do that by force. I don’t know what we need to wait for.”

Menendez argued that the US needs to impose “severe” sanctions and be “overwhelming” in its response to Russia, otherwise Putin will “continue to calibrate in a way that he thinks he can get away with.”

“I think we can stop equivocating as to whether we have an invasion or not. I think the West, the United States has to make it very clear to Putin that the consequences begin now,” he said.

CNN’s Sam Waldenberg contributed to this report.

In remarks delivered prior to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Tuesday address, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman noted that “Russia never fulfilled a single, solitary one of its obligations under the Minsk agreements.”

“Russia has not supported a ceasefire. Russia has not removed its heavy weapons from proscribed zones. Russia has not granted unfettered access for SMM monitors,” she said in remarks delivered virtually to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

“The ink was barely dry on the Minsk agreements before Moscow began to pretend that its guns, its artillery systems, and its anti-aircraft missiles had never been inside Ukraine at all,” she continued. “They attempted to gaslight the world into believing it was all a mirage, and that Russia had never been a party to this conflict.”

“Now Russia has showed the world its true intentions by once again violating Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and its internationally recognized borders,” Sherman said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declined Tuesday to give a specific timeline on the deployment of Russian troops, after Russia’s upper house of parliament approved sending forces abroad. 

“Firstly, I didn’t say that the troops would go there right after our meeting with you here, that’s the first thing,” Putin said in response to a question from reporters.

“Secondly, it’s impossible to predict any specific outline of possible actions at all, it depends on the specific situation that is developing on the spot, on the ground what is called,” he said.

The G7 foreign ministers have agreed to a “strong package of coordinated escalatory sanctions” against Russia in response to Moscow “violating their international commitments,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Tuesday.

“The G7 Foreign Ministers strongly condemn Russia’s violation of their international commitments. We agreed a strong package of coordinated escalatory sanctions in response. Our support is unwavering for the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Truss tweeted. 

See Truss’s tweet here:

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday said Russia has now moved “from covert attempts to destabilize Ukraine to overt military action.” 

“Moscow has now moved from covert attempts to destabilize Ukraine to overt military action. This is a serious escalation by Russia, and a flagrant violation of international law,” Stoltenberg said at a news conference in Brussels following a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission.

He called the Russia-Ukraine crisis “the most dangerous moment in European security for a generation.”

“NATO is resolute and united in its determination to protect and defend all allies. In the last weeks, allies have deployed 1000s more troops to eastern part of the alliance and placed more on standby. We have over 100 jets at high alert and there are more than 120 allies’ ships at the sea from the high north to the Mediterranean,” he added.

“We will continue to do whatever is necessary to shield the alliance from aggression,” he continued.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Minsk agreement for resolving the Ukraine crisis “no longer exists” after recognizing the independence of two Moscow-backed regions.

Putin was speaking to reporters after Russia’s upper chamber of parliament gave consent to Putin to deploy Russian armed forces outside the country in connection with the situation in the Donbas. 

Some background: The Minsk agreement, the second of its kind (and the one that matters), was hammered out in the Belarusian capital in a bid to end what was then a bloody 10-month conflict in eastern Ukraine. But it has never been fully implemented, with its key issues still unresolved. It was was signed by representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the separatist leaders and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). It was subsequently endorsed by a UN Security Council resolution. This put an end to the worst of the fighting at the time. But to this day, the OSCE patrols the frontlines and reports ceasefire violations along the border.

Read more about the Minsk agreement here.

When Liubov Illienko, 56, heard that the popular Ukrainian band Okean Elzy was going to perform an impromptu patriotic concert in a park in central Kyiv on Tuesday, she grabbed her daughter and a large Ukrainian flag, jumped into a taxi and headed to the performance.

“I watched Putin’s speech yesterday — not the full version, but some bits of it. I think he is a maniac to say such things and act this way,” she said. “I know that Ukrainians are a strong nation and we will be victorious and now we are united as never.”

Illienko and her daughter Zhenia Tuholukova, 23, were part of the large crowd of people who attended the pop-up event.

Okean Elzy are known for their patriotic Ukrainian songs and many of the attendees joined in and sang along the chorus of one of their biggest hits: “Everything will be good.”

Ania Andriyashko, 33, came to the concert with her 8-year-old son and their dog.

“I didn’t watch Putin’s speech yesterday, but I read the report with the main bullet points from it. It’s horrible. But nothing new really, this had to happen at some point, it was just a matter of time,” she said. “I felt quite anxious after reading [about Putin’s speech] and have no clear understanding of what will happen now. It just proves that nothing can be foreseen in advance.”

The Federation Council — Russia’s upper chamber of parliament — gave consent to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the use of the Russian armed forces outside the country in connection with the situation in the Donbas, Russian state news agencies RIA-Novosti and TASS reported Tuesday. 

A resolution was unanimously adopted on the matter at an extraordinary meeting of the upper house of parliament, TASS said, with 153 senators voting in favor.

“The Federation Council decides to give consent to the President of the Russian Federation for the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation outside the territory of the Russian Federation on the basis of the generally recognized principles and norms of international law,” TASS said, citing the decree. “The total number of formations of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, their areas of operation, their tasks, the period of stay outside the territory of the Russian Federation are determined by the President of the Russian Federation in accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation.” 

This post has been updated with the latest news.

US President Joe Biden will provide an update on Russia and Ukraine at 1 p.m. ET in the East Room, the White House said. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s briefing was moved to 4 p.m. ET.

The White House is expected to announce a new set of sanctions against Russia after President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into two separatist pro-Moscow regions in eastern Ukraine after recognizing their independence on Monday.

You can follow along for the latest updates and watch Biden’s speech here.

This post has been updated with the latest timing of Biden’s speech.

Ukrainians are on edge after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into two separatist pro-Moscow regions in eastern Ukraine after recognizing their independence on Monday. CNN spoke to some people on the ground in Zaporizhzhia. They declined to provide their last names.

“This is a violation of sovereignty and there is no room for another view,” said 31-year-old Roman, who works as a lawyer. “I don’t know if it means war will come – but it is definitely an escalation and it’s a fact.”

Roman added that his action will depend on what happens next. “I might join a territorial defense unit.”

Meanwhile, 27-year-old Alyona said these tensions over territory could have been avoided if the residents of Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic were give a referendum eight years ago.

“I think we should have given DPR and LPR a referendum on this eight years ago. There should have been three questions, ‘Do you want to be in Russia?’, ‘Do you want to be in Ukraine?’, or ‘Do you want to be independent?’ and give them the choice, because all this fighting doesn’t make sense.”

The role and rhetoric from the United States is also a key factor in the situation for 45-year-old Alexander.

“This isn’t a war against Ukraine or against Europe. It’s a war between Russia and USA,” Alexander told CNN.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s diplomatic sprint to de-escalate the Russia-Ukraine crisis hasn’t been a complete success, French Prime Minister Jean Castex admitted while speaking at the French National Assembly on Tuesday.   

“France, through the President of the Republic, has spared no effort to ensure that dialogue and diplomacy prevail,” Castex said. “These efforts have not been completely successful.”  

Macron has been very active in mediating between Russia, Ukraine and the West since the latest crisis between Ukraine and Russia started.  

But Putin’s decision on Monday to recognize two separatist pro-Moscow regions in eastern Ukraine have led some in France to question Macron’s previous efforts.  

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in Paris is discussing EU sanctions against Russia with other member states. 

Global markets tumbled and crude oil prices surged to $99 per barrel on Tuesday after Russia ordered troops into parts of eastern Ukraine.

Wall Street also headed lower as traders returned from the holiday weekend.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian troops into two separatist pro-Moscow regions in eastern Ukraine after recognizing their independence on Monday. The move appears to be the opening salvo of a larger potential military operation targeting Ukraine, US and western officials told CNN.

Escalating uncertainty about Ukraine was reflected by a spike in energy prices. US crude futures jumped 5.4% to trade at $95.65 per barrel. Brent crude, the global benchmark, surged 3.8% to $99.17 per barrel.

Russia is one of the world’s biggest producers of oil. It is also a major exporter of natural gas. 

Investors fear that conflict in Ukraine could limit or stop the flow of Russian gas into Europe, making it much more expensive for people to heat and light their homes. In 2020, Russia accounted for about 38% of the European Union’s natural gas imports, according to data agency Eurostat.

The region’s biggest economy, Germany, is particularly exposed as it weans itself off of coal and nuclear power. So are Italy and Austria, which receive gas via pipelines that run through Ukraine.

Western countries would likely respond to a Russian invasion of Ukraine with punishing sanctions that could cut Russian banks off from the global financial system and make it more difficult for the country to export its oil and gas.

The deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, has responded to Germany’s announcement on Tuesday that it would halt the certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, warning of a severe hike in natural gas prices for Europe.

“German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has issued an order to halt the process of certifying the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Well. Welcome to the brave new world where Europeans are very soon going to pay €2.000 for 1.000 cubic meters of natural gas,” Medvedev tweeted. 

Earlier on Tuesday, Scholz announced that the certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline would be halted in response to Moscow’s actions in eastern Ukraine. 

“With regards to the latest developments, we need to reassess the situation also with regards to Nord Stream 2. It sounds very technocratic, but it is the necessary administrative step in order to stop certification of the pipeline,” Scholz said in Berlin.

Some background: The 750-mile pipeline was completed in September but has not yet received final certification from German regulators. Without that, natural gas cannot flow through the Baltic Sea pipeline from Russia to Germany.                        

Nord Stream 2 could deliver 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. That’s more than 50% of Germany’s annual consumption and could be worth as much as $15 billion to Gazprom, the Russian state owned company that controls the pipeline.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and several EU countries have opposed the pipeline since it was announced in 2015, warning the project would increase Moscow’s influence in Europe.

Germany: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stopped the progression of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline following Moscow’s actions in eastern Ukraine. The pipeline, which would have increased European reliance on energy from Russia, has been a major source of contention in Europe and the United States for years. Without undergoing the certification or approval process, the pipeline cannot start running. 

United Kingdom: Prime Minister Boris Johnson has unveiled the “first tranche” of British sanctions on Russia, condemning Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine aggression. The UK will sanction five Russian banks and three “very high net worth” individuals, Johnson said in Parliament.

“What (Putin) is doing is going to be a disaster for Russia,” he said, predicting “pariah status” for the nation if it continues to further invade Ukraine.

European Union: The European Commission proposed sanctions to EU members states and placed a particular emphasis that would mirror sanctions taken in Crimea after the 2014 annexation by Moscow. Sources say US and European officials have been in intense discussions over the several past hours over how to proceed with additional sanctions against Russia.

United States: After its first set of announced sanctions on Monday, the White House has said it will impose additional “significant” sanctions on Tuesday. Monday’s sanctions were cautious in nature and Tuesday’s sanctions are expected to go further but it will not be the full blow that the US has previewed, pending “further actions” by Russia.

Turkey: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to recognize breakaway eastern Ukrainian territories, calling it “unacceptable,” and saying it is contrary to the Minsk Agreements.

China: China’s Foreign Ministry evaded more than a dozen questions on Ukraine in its daily briefing on Tuesday. In his responses, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin reiterated that any country’s “legitimate security concerns should be respected” and urged all parties to “exercise restraint.” Beijing is navigating a complex position as it attempts to balance deepening ties with Moscow with its practiced foreign policy of staunchly defending state sovereignty.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has hailed Germany’s decision to halt certification of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline as a “brave step.”

“I salute the decision of the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, to cancel Nord Stream 2. And I think it’s a brave step by Olaf and the right thing to do,” Johnson told lawmakers in the UK parliament on Tuesday. 

Some background: Earlier today, Germany said it was halting certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline following Moscow’s actions in eastern Ukraine on Monday.

The 750-mile pipeline was completed in September but has not yet received final certification from German regulators. Without that, natural gas cannot flow through the Baltic Sea pipeline from Russia to Germany.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and several EU countries have opposed the pipeline since it was announced in 2015, warning the project would increase Moscow’s influence in Europe.

Nord Stream 2 could deliver 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. That’s more than 50% of Germany’s annual consumption and could be worth as much as $15 billion to Gazprom, the Russian state owned company that controls the pipeline.

There are few energy projects in the world as controversial as Nord Stream 2, and on Tuesday, it all but died in the water as Germany’s leader halted its approval process. 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s announcement was the strongest concrete response yet from the West to Russia’s military action in eastern Ukraine. But it puts Europe in an uncomfortable position — Russia could simply turn off its other gas taps that power most of the continent and leave millions of people in the dark and cold. 

Fears that Russia would use Nord Stream 2 as a geopolitical weapon to push it interests — and expansionism — in Europe were well founded. But loading the weapon with actual gas will weaken Europe’s position even further.

Whether or not Germany officially scraps Nord Stream 2, Russia’s actions in Ukraine make the project politically untenable. 

The pipeline was already running into political problems. The 1,230-kilometer pipeline was supposed to ferry huge amounts of Russian gas to Europe via Germany, and although it has been sitting there, built for more than five months, not a single delivery has passed through it.

Germany’s new coalition government has a strong Greens presence that opposed the increased reliance on natural gas – a fossil fuel that is now contributing more greenhouse gas emissions in the EU than coal, so reliant it has become on what was supposed to be a fuel to transition to renewables. 

Nord Stream 2 was set to add 100 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, not to mention the inevitable leaks of methane, a greenhouse gas with more than 80 times the planet-warming power of CO2 in the short term.

Now Europe — Germany in particular – has an opportunity to use this moment to move away not just from Nord Stream 2 but its growing reliance on fossil gas altogether. 

Germany is one of few developed nations that opposes nuclear power and is in the process of shutting down its few reactors. Without it, it will need a radical rethink to speed up energy generation from renewables. And considering the environmental concerns around dealing with the radioactive waste that nuclear energy brings, its role in the future energy mix has its limitations. A rapid scale-up of renewables – solar, wind and hydropower – offer security in both energy and climate protection. Moving subsidies away from fossil fuels to renewables would be an easy first step.

In the short term, Europe can scramble gas from other countries — unlikely enough to replace Russia, but perhaps enough to get by — and deal with the immediate Russian threat.

But the forever problem of the climate crisis will keep churning and will ultimately be deadlier and costlier than military confrontation is likely to be.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that while Russia has sought to cooperate with all the independent nations which emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union, the situation in Ukraine “is different” due to intervention by foreign nations.

“After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia recognized all the new geopolitical realities and, as you know, it is actively working to strengthen our cooperation with all the independent countries that emerged in the post-soviet space,” Putin said. 

“We intend to work this way with all our neighbors, but with Ukraine, the situation is different,” he continued. “This is because, unfortunately, the territory of this country is being used by third countries to create threats against the Russian Federation itself. That is the only reason.”

Addressing the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, in Moscow, Putin spoke of his decision to recognize the separatist-controlled Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic on Monday. 

“I shall say straight away that we foresaw speculation on this subject that ‘Russia is going is restore an empire within imperial borders.’ That is absolutely not true,” Putin said, adding that he will discuss the situation in Ukraine in further detail during his meeting with Aliyev.

Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 12 others injured in shelling by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine on Monday, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday in a statement. 

The ministry said the Ukrainian Defense Forces recorded 84 ceasefire violations on Monday, 64 of which involved weapons prohibited by the 2015 Minsk Peace agreement. Most of the violence was recorded along the contact line in Luhansk.

In a separate statement on Tuesday, the ministry said it has so far recorded 152 attacks on civilian objects in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk over the past five days. 

It said one civilian was killed, two were injured and three more suffered concussions. 

In total, the ministry said 48 homes, four schools and educational institutions and 11 infrastructure facilities were damaged over the past five days. 

The shelling on Monday follows a weekend of violations: the Ukrainian Border Guards saidthat Shchastia, a crossing point for international humanitarian organizations at the Line of Contact, had been closed since 8 a.m. local time Sunday due to shelling. A UNHCR convoy that used the crossing point Friday said it had been caught in crossfire.

Some residents of Donetsk — which is controlled by pro-Russian separatists — reported heavy shelling early Sunday, ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement on Monday that Donetsk would be recognized as a Russian republic.  

The authorities in the breakaway republics persistently claim shelling by Ukrainian forces, who in turn regularly deny firing artillery across the front lines.

On Saturday, the EU condemned the “use of heavy weaponry and indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas,” saying they constituted a “clear violation of the Minsk agreements and international humanitarian law.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to recognize breakaway eastern Ukrainian territories, calling it “unacceptable.”

“Russia’s decision to recognize the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk Republics is contrary to the Minsk Agreements,” Erdogan told reporters during a trip to Senegal on Tuesday.  

“It was emphasized that this decision constitutes a clear violation of Ukraine’s political unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he added.

“We consider this decision of Russia unacceptable,” Erdogan said.

The Turkish leader called on the parties to “respect common sense” and announced that Turkey is open to attending a summit proposal by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Erdogan added that Turkey is taking precautions in case of an escalation in hostility around the Black Sea.

“Since we are a Black Sea country, many precautions must be taken,” he said.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has unveiled the “first tranche” of British sanctions on Russia, condemning Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine aggression and saying Europe must “brace ourselves” for his next steps.

Johnson told lawmakers that people “will struggle to understand or to contemplate how, in the year 2022, a national leader might calmly and deliberately plot the destruction of a peaceful neighbor.”

“Yet the evidence of his own words suggest that is exactly what President Putin is doing,” he said.

The UK will sanction five Russian banks and three “very high net worth” individuals, Johnson said in Parliament.

“What (Putin) is doing is going to be a disaster for Russia,” he said, predicting “pariah status” for the nation if it continues to further invade Ukraine.

“We will continue to seek a diplomatic solution until the last possible moment,” Johnson said. “But we have to face the possibility that none of our messages has been heeded and that Putin is implacably determined to go further in subjugating and tormenting Ukraine.”

Johnson’s predecessor as prime minister, Theresa May, told Parliament that Britain must defend “the right to democracy itself,” adding: “What lies behind this is a wider, worldwide trend of authoritarian states trying to impose their way of thinking on others.”

Earlier, Johnson’s spokesperson supported Germany’s move to halt certification of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline. “Europe has to wean itself off Russian hydrocarbons,” the spokesperson told reporters, according to PA Media.

The White House will be imposing additional sanctions on Russia in the coming hours, a top Biden national security official said Tuesday, after Russia President Vladimir Putin recognized two pro-Moscow territories in Ukraine on Monday.

“The United States is going to have significant announcements of its own a bit later today, including sanctions that we will impose in response to what Russia did yesterday,” deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said during an appearance on MSNBC.

He also offered a little more detail on the additional sanctions announcements coming later Tuesday, suggesting that this could stop short of the severe sanctions the US has previewed, pending “further actions” by Russia.

“If Russia takes further actions, we will have further significant and severe consequences that we can impose via sanctions on Russia, in addition to the other elements of our response, including security assistance to the Ukrainians to help them defend themselves, and the force posture, troop movements that you have seen the United States take, in the coming days,” Finer said, adding that the US remains open to diplomacy.

For now, an entire array of sanctions against Russia is not expected because, “if you are going to deter [Putin] from taking Kyiv and the country — still a serious probability — you have to hold some threats of sanctions against that,” a senior administration official told CNN.

However, sanctions announced today are still expected to go further than the limited package, the White House announced on Monday.

A senior US official told CNN the cautious nature of Monday’s package was due, in part, to the need to consult with Europeans about their willingness to go further, and to gauge whether Russia’s actions Monday should trigger the full sanctions package the West has prepared in the event of an invasion.

US and European officials have been in intense discussions over the several past hours over how to proceed with additional sanctions against Russia for ordering troops into Ukraine, according to officials familiar with the matter.

The European Commission has also proposed sanctions to EU member states on Tuesday. The proposals will place sanctions on 27 persons and entities including political figures, propagandists, military personnel and financial entities who the EU deems to be linked to “illegal activities” in the regions. There will also be sanctions for the 351 Russian lawmakers who voted for the recognition and the 11 who proposed it – and the installation of Russian troops.

The Commission has placed a particular emphasis that would mirror sanctions taken in Crimea after the 2014 annexation by Moscow.

Nikolai Fyodorovich is one of the few men allowed to cross the border into Russia from the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine. His age – he’s 59 – has spared him from the mobilization ordered by separatist leaders on Friday.

Nikolai Fyodorovich, who declined to give his full name, drove across the border at the Avilo-Uspenka crossing, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) from Donetsk’s capital, on Sunday.

He and his wife were taking their daughter-in-law and 4-year-old granddaughter to stay with relatives in Rostov-on-Don, and had stopped to eat lunch at a cafeteria established near the crossing by Russian emergency services.

Last Friday, the leaders of the Russian-backed self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk republics – which are not recognized by the West – ordered the mass evacuation of women, children and the elderly, while barring men aged 18 to 55 from leaving.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees recognizing the independence of the separatist regions and ordered troops into them on what the Kremlin called a “peacekeeping” mission.

The move marked a sharp escalation in Russia-Ukraine tensions that have been rising for months.

Nikolai Fyodorovich said that he and his wife did not plan to stay in Russia and would return home to Donetsk the same day instead.

“Everyone decides for themselves whether they want to leave or not, but we survived 2014,” he said, alluding to the de facto war that broke out in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine eight years ago between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces.

Read more below.

Russia's Emergency Services Ministry has set up tents near the Avilo-Uspenka border crossing.

Related article Donbas evacuees face uncertainty in southern Russia

The European Commission and European External Action Service have presented proposal sanctions to EU member states following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to recognize two Ukrainian regions as independent.

The proposals will place sanctions on 27 persons and entities including political figures, propagandists, military personnel and financial entities who the EU deems to be linked to “illegal activities” in the regions.

There will also be sanctions for the 351 Russian lawmakers who voted for the recognition and the 11 who proposed it – and the installation of Russian troops.

The Commission has placed a particular emphasis that would mirror sanctions taken in Crimea after the 2014 annexation by Moscow.

According to a senior EU diplomat who spoke with CNN on the condition of anonymity, most member states are on board but those with long-standing close ties to Moscow are making the bloc as a whole nervous that veto powers will be used.

The diplomat added that some member states are pushing for “incremental” implementation of sanctions, which is raising the question of whether they will duck putting in place the hardest parts of the proposed sanctions package.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has stopped the progression of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline following Moscow’s actions in eastern Ukraine.

Scholz announced a halt to the certification of the pipeline from Russia while speaking alongside Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in Berlin on Tuesday.

The pipeline, which would have increased European reliance on energy from Russia, has been a major source of contention in Europe and the United States for years.

“With regard to the latest developments, we need to reassess the situation also with regard to Nord Stream 2. It sounds very technocratic but it is the necessary administrative step in order to stop certification of the pipeline,” Scholz said.

Without undergoing the certification or approval process, the pipeline cannot start running. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has recognized two separatist territories in eastern Ukraine as independent states, ordering the deployment of Russian troops there following a major address Monday night.

For almost eight years, the breakaway regions have been the site of a low-intensity war between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces, which has left more than 14,000 people dead.

But Putin’s decision to send forces into the area has raised fears about a broader war in Ukraine. Here’s a look at how the conflict started.

What’s the recent history in Donbas?

War broke out in 2014 after Russian-backed rebels seized government buildings in towns and cities across eastern Ukraine. Intense fighting left portions of the Donbas region’s eastern Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts in the hands of Russian-backed separatists. Russia also annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 in a move that sparked global condemnation.

The separatist-controlled areas in Donbas became known as the Luhansk and the Donetsk People’s Republics. The Ukrainian government in Kyiv asserts the two regions are in effect Russian-occupied. The self-declared republics are not recognized by any government, other than Russia. The Ukrainian government refuses to talk directly with either separatist republic.

The Minsk II agreement of 2015 led to a shaky ceasefire agreement, and the conflict settled into static warfare along the Line of Contact that separates the Ukrainian government and separatist-controlled areas. The Minsk Agreements (named after the capital of Belarus where they were concluded) ban heavy weapons near the Line of Contact.

How has Russia stoked the conflict?

The separatists in Donbas have had substantial backing from Moscow. Russia has long maintained that it has no soldiers on the ground there, but US, NATO and Ukrainian officials say the Russian government supplies the separatists, provides them with advisory support and intelligence, and embeds its own officers in their ranks.

Moscow has also distributed hundreds of thousands of Russian passports to people in Donbas in recent years.

Western officials and observers have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of attempting to establish facts on the ground by naturalizing Ukrainians as Russian citizens, a de facto way of recognizing the breakaway states. It also gives him a reason to intervene in Ukraine.

Read our full explainer here:

Pro-Russian Serviceman observing the movement of Ukrainian troops from the advanced trenches of the people's militia of the Donetsk People's Republic in the Yasne village area, Donbas, Ukraine on February 11, 2022. Russia's parliament will vote on Tuesday to decide whether to ask President Vladimir Putin to recognize two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent, the speaker of the Duma lower house said. Vyacheslav Volodin said lawmakers would consider two alternative resolutions on recognition of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, in the area known as the Donbas, where separatist forces have been fighting the Ukrainian army since 2014. Photo by Svetlana Kisileva/Abaca/Sipa USA(Sipa via AP Images)

Related article Why Donbas is at the heart of the Ukraine crisis

Taiwan’s presidential spokeswoman said it was “encouraging” that UN ambassadors were rejecting Russia’s claims to Ukraine territory, saying she looked forward to the day “the world will equally reject” China’s claims over Taiwan. 

“Encouraging to see UN ambassadors reject Russian imperial claims over Ukraine, we in Taiwan look forward to the day when the world will equally reject China’s imperial claims over our country,” Kolas Yotaka tweeted from her verified Twitter account.

Earlier, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed “deep regret and condemnation” towards Russia after it ordered troops into two separatist pro-Moscow regions in eastern Ukraine. 

On Tuesday, China’s Foreign Ministry rebuffed parallels between Ukraine and Taiwan, calling it an “irrefutable historical and legal fact” that there is “only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory,” referring back to its “One-China” principle. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday he believes “there will be no war” with Russia, but cautioned that Ukraine will be prepared should Russian military aggression against his country escalate further. 

 “With regards to being on a military footing, we understand there will be no war,” Zelensky said. 

“There will not be an all-out war against Ukraine, and there will not be a broad escalation from Russia. If there is, then we will put Ukraine on a war footing,” he added. 

Zelensky’s remarks come after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his decision to recognize the separatist-controlled Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic on Monday. 

The Ukrainian president described Russia’s actions as a form of “legal aggression” to create a “strong foundation” for possible further military escalation in the Russian-backed eastern breakaway regions. 

Speaking during a press conference in Kyiv, Zelensky said Russia’s actions amount to an “attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Ukraine, but called for further dialogue between the two states.  

“We urge Russia, not for the first time, to resolve these issues through dialogue, to sit down at the negotiating table,” the Ukrainian president said. “We are ready to negotiate in any forum, and Russia knows this.”

Despite calls for diplomatic efforts to continue, Zelensky noted that he has received a request from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to consider breaking diplomatic relations with Russia. 

“I will be considering this, and not only this, but also the effective actions we can take with regards to the escalation by Russia,” he said. 

China’s Foreign Ministry evaded more than a dozen questions on Ukraine in its daily briefing on Tuesday, sticking closely in its responses to a statement released after Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. 

The 14 questions regarding Ukraine that were asked in the briefing included whether China recognized the independence of the two separatist pro-Moscow regions in eastern Ukraine and whether China would use its influence to prevent a “further incursion” into Ukraine’s territory. 

In his responses, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin reiterated that any country’s “legitimate security concerns should be respected” and urged all parties to “exercise restraint.”

He re-emphasized that China would contact all parties “based on the merits of the matter” and that the different sides should resolve their differences through dialogue and negotiation. 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had earlier expressed “concern” about the situation in Ukraine and said “legitimate security concerns of any country should be respected” during a phone call Blinken, according to a statement from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

But Wang Wenbin offered few words beyond that statement during the Tuesday briefing, in keeping with its reluctance to join Western condemnation of Russia in recent days. He was asked how China views potential sanctions against Russia and whether it would help Russia, to which he repeated that countries should exercise restraint and resolve differences through negotiation to “prevent further escalate the situation.”

Wang was also asked whether China sees parallels between Ukraine and Taiwan, to which he responded it is an “irrefutable historical and legal fact” that there is “only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory,” referring back to its “One-China” principle. 

The China-Russia relationship: Beijing is navigating a complex position as it attempts to balance deepening ties with Moscow with its practiced foreign policy of staunchly defending state sovereignty.

Though not military allies, China and Russia have been presenting an increasingly united front in the face of what they view as Western interference into their respective affairs and regions.

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s extraordinary address on Monday evening, talk in Europe has turned to whether or not the European Union will maintain its hardline position on not-yet-public sanctions. 

The EU’s position matters because, until now, the West’s position in this crisis has been heavily coordinated.

NATO has led the military and political organization whereas the EU, the world’s largest economic union, has proposed a package of sanctions that would do serious damage to the Russian economy, Putin’s associates and undermine Moscow’s grip on the Russian sphere of influence. 

One NATO official told CNN last week that without the EU’s sanctions proposals “the Western response would unquestionably have been much weaker.”

But fears emerged on Monday night that the EU would put forward a less severe package in order to keep diplomatic options open and deescalate.

Putin’s decision to send troops into two separatist pro-Moscow regions in eastern Ukraine, and recognize them as independent, has put the West in a very difficult position as it determines whether or not what happened on Monday counts as a full invasion or not. 

According to a senior EU diplomat, thinking as of Tuesday morning is that the West needs to take severe action against Putin for his most recent actions, but keep the option open to go further should Putin escalate again. 

“They’re looking at a package of sanctions that is still under the remit of the 2014 sanctions package,’ after Russia annexed Crimea, the diplomat explained.

They said that all of this was being done in full coordination with the US and UK, but that “keeping a lot of sticks in our back pocket makes sense.” 

The diplomat added that the “package presented today needs to be heavy enough to really hurt but to keep the package with massive consequences and costs available in the case of escalation.”

However, they admitted that we are not likely to see the new, maximum damage sanctions package in response to Putin’s most recent aggression. 

The UK is also expected to put forward a sanctions package today and has publicly taken a very firm line against Putin. 

Obviously, things are fluid and subject to change, not least because no one knows what Putin’s next move will be. However, the Russian president’s surprise move on Monday has put the Western alliance in a difficult position of not knowing how far to go in response.

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Tuesday Russian President Vladimir Putin has “shown his true face,” accusing him of wanting to “hold the free world hostage.”

In a statement addressed directly to members of Ukraine’s armed forces, Reznikov said “the Kremlin has taken another step towards the revival of the Soviet Union.” 

“The darkness of uncertainty has fallen. What you have known for eight years, the whole world has now seen,” he said in the statement posted on the ministry’s website. 

Reznikov accused the Russian president of “waging a vile war all these years, hiding behind women and children.”

“The crime will certainly be punished. Thanks to you, Europe has realized the real cost of avoiding honest answers,” he said.

Putin delivered a lengthy televised address on Monday evening, announcing his decision to recognize the independence of separatist-held parts of eastern Ukraine and ordering Russian forces to be sent in.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that by recognizing the “quasi-entities it had created” in Donetsk and Luhansk, Russia “has blatantly defied the fundamental norms and principles of international law.”

The ministry said Russia had “violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders,” and urged the international community to apply sanctions.

The ministry condemned the move in their Tuesday statement, saying it “sharply escalates the situation and can mean the Russian Federation’s unilateral withdrawal from the Minsk agreements,” the 2015 pact that established a shaky ceasefire in the region and banned heavy weapons near the Line of Contact.

“The Ukrainian side understands Russia’s intentions and its objective to provoke Ukraine,” the ministry said.

The statement also urged the West to apply heavy financial pressure on Russia to prevent further aggression.

“The Russian Federation’s next decisions and moves depend greatly on global reactions to today’s developments. We therefore insist on application against Russia of harsh sanctions to send a clear signal of inadmissibility of further escalation,” the ministry said. “The time has come to act in order to stop Russian aggression and restore peace and stability in Europe.”

The European Union will impose sanctions on Moscow following the “unacceptable” entry of Russian troops into the Donbas region of Ukraine, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Tuesday.

“It’s a violation of international law, it’s an attack on the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine, it’s Russia renouncing its international commitments and the Minsk accords that it had signed,” Le Drian said. “So the situation is very serious.”

He added that European leaders had three messages to convey — taking a firm stance against Russia’s actions, showing solidarity with Ukraine, and showing unity in Europe.

EU High Representative Joseph Borrell said Tuesday morning that he had called an emergency informal meeting of EU foreign ministers to discuss Ukraine following a planned summit.

European markets have fallen sharply in the opening minutes of trade as the crisis in Ukraine intensifies. The German Dax and the French Cac 40 were both trading around 2% lower in early trade, while the UK FTSE 100 was around 1% down. 

The falls follow a sharp sell-off in Asian markets on Tuesday. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 1.9%, and Korea’s Kospi lost 1.4%.

China’s Shanghai Composite and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 were both down more than 1%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 3.2%, poised to post the biggest daily loss in five months. New concerns over China’s tech crackdown further dented the sentiment in Asia.

The plunge in Asia was preceded by a similar drop for US stock futures earlier on Monday evening local time. Dow futures were down 458 points, or 1.4%. S&P 500 futures were down about 2.3%, while Nasdaq futures were down 3.3%.

The European Union will decide on what sanctions to impose on Russia “this afternoon,” EU High Representative Joseph Borrell told reporters on Tuesday.

Borrell said he has called for an emergency informal meeting of European Union foreign ministers this afternoon to discuss the European response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ordering Russian troops into two separatist pro-Moscow regions in eastern Ukraine after recognizing their independence on Monday.

“I wouldn’t say that this is a fully-fledged invasion but Russian troops are on Ukrainian soil,” he added. 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed “concern” about the situation in Ukraine in a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to a statement Tuesday from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The purposes and principles of the UN Charter should be upheld,” Wang said, adding that the situation in Ukraine is “closely related to the delay” in implementing the Minsk agreement, referring to a 2015 set of protocols designed to end conflict in eastern Ukraine but which have never been been fully implemented.

China urged all parties to “exercise restraint, recognize the importance of implementing the principle of indivisible security, ease the situation and resolve differences through dialogue and negotiation,” Wang said, according to the statement.

He added that China will continue its contact with “all parties based on the merits of the matter.”

The China-Russia friendship: Beijing is navigating a complex position as it attempts to balance deepening ties with Moscow with its practiced foreign policy of staunchly defending state sovereignty.

Though not military allies, China and Russia have been presenting an increasingly united front in the face of what they view as Western interference into their respective affairs and regions.

Read more:

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping meeting in Beijing on February 4, 2022.

Related article As the West condemns Russia over Ukraine, Beijing strikes a different tone

Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov said early Tuesday that “we remain confident and calm,” following Russia’s move to order troops into two separatist pro-Moscow regions in eastern Ukraine.

In a tweet early Tuesday on his official account, Reznikov added that by recognizing the two regions as independent on Monday, the “Kremlin recognized its own aggression against Ukraine.”

In a statement Monday, Finland President Sauli Niinistö condemned Russia’s move to order troops into two separatist-held pro-Moscow regions of eastern Ukraine.

Russia’s actions “violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said the statement from the president’s office, adding that it marked “a serious breach of the Minsk agreements.”

What is the Minsk agreement? The 2015 agreement was hammered out in the Belarusian capital in a bid to end what was then a bloody 10-month conflict in eastern Ukraine. It led to a shaky ceasefire, and the conflict settled into static warfare along the Line of Contact that separates the Ukrainian government and separatist-controlled areas.

The agreement bans heavy weapons near the Line of Contact – but it was never fully implemented and key issues remain unresolved.

European Council President Charles Michel said early Tuesday that he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and reiterated “the EU’s full solidarity with Ukraine.”

Russia’s recognition of two separatist pro-Moscow regions in Ukraine and its order for troops to enter those areas is “an attack against international law and the rules-based international order,” Michel said in a tweet.

He added that the European Union “firmly and fully supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity.”

In an earlier tweet on Monday, Michel had asserted that the EU and its partners would “react with unity, firmness and determination in solidarity.”

Estonia and Latvia have condemned Russia’s move to recognize pro-Moscow regions of Ukraine and order its troops there.

“Moscow is not serious about diplomacy,” tweeted Estonian President Alar Karis from his official account on Monday.

He warned that Russia was looking for reasons to provoke or justify a war, adding that “Estonia will never accept the illegal decision by Russia to recognize Donetsk and Luhansk regions.”

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas described Russia’s actions as a “grave attack on Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity” in a Facebook post and called for the EU to impose sanctions.

Latvia’s leaders spoke out as well, with President Egils Levits calling Russia’s actions “a gross violation of norms of international law” in a tweet Monday. He, too, called for “immediate sanctions” from the EU against Russia.

A statement from the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared the country’s “unwavering support for Ukraine’s freedom, sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Kenya’s ambassador to the UN condemned Russia’s actions at the emergency United Nations Security Council meeting on Monday, highlighting the legacy of imperialism and colonialism in Africa.

“Kenya, and almost every African country, was birthed by the ending of empire,” said Martin Kimani in his statement. “At independence, had we chosen to pursue states on the basis of ethnic, racial or religious homogeneity, we would still be waging bloody wars these many decades later.”
“Instead we agreed that we would settle for the borders we inherited … Rather than form nations that looked ever backward into history with a dangerous nostalgia, we chose to look forward to a greatness none of our many nations or peoples had ever known.”

He added that while it is understandable for states formed from collapsed empires to yearn for “integration with peoples in neighboring states,” such a yearning must never be “pursued by force.”

“Multiculturalism lies on its deathbed tonight,” he concluded, reiterating Kenya’s support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed “deep regret and condemnation” towards Russia after it ordered troops into two separatist pro-Moscow regions in eastern Ukraine on Monday.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Joanne Ou told reporters on Tuesday that Russia’s actions have violated the United Nations Charter and undermined efforts by the international community to seek a peaceful solution to the crisis. 

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs once again calls on all parties to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, and opposes unilateral changes to the status quo by force or coercion,” she said.

Yet again, the world is hanging on what Russian President Vladimir Putin does next.

But the omens, after his grievance-filled televised vent against Ukraine, the West and the indignities of history on Monday, are very, very dark.

Putin significantly escalated his showdown with the US and its allies, signing decrees recognizing two regions of eastern Ukraine seized by Russian-backed rebels. At the stroke of a pen, Putin sliced off two more pieces of an independent, sovereign nation to add to his seizure of Crimea in 2014.

Moscow said it would send what it called “peacekeepers” to the regions. Its euphemism notwithstanding, US officials fear that the force could be the vanguard of the full invasion mobilization they have predicted for days.

As bad as this latest round of gangster geopolitics is, what unfolds in the coming hours and days will set the world’s course in the years ahead.

What could come next: If Putin were to stop here, it is possible that the Ukraine crisis could be contained, and even give the Russian President an opening to deescalate the situation and desist from a full invasion of the entire country after pocketing new territory in his quest to prevent Ukraine from moving toward the West.

Such a step back — perhaps designed to divide the US from less hawkish allies — might avoid a wider global crisis. In the US, this interim scenario might also spare Americans a damaging new spike in gasoline prices and inflation and allow President Joe Biden to escape another blow to his credibility in a tough midterm election year.

Unfortunately, however, the evidence of Putin’s own furious rhetoric on Monday, the presence of up to 190,000 Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders and most assessments of US leaders and intelligence officials suggest hopes for a limited conflict are wishful thinking.

In his speech from the Kremlin, Putin made clear that he sees Ukraine as indistinguishable from Russia and not an independent entity — hardly an argument that suggests restraint. In fact, his screed came across as a justification for a far larger venture than a limited incursion into the east of the country.

Read the full analysis:

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council in Moscow on February 21, 2022. - President Vladimir Putin said on February 21, 2022, he would make a decision "today" on recognising the independence of east Ukraine's rebel republics, after Russia's top officials made impassioned speeches in favour of the move. (Photo by Alexey NIKOLSKY / Sputnik / AFP) (Photo by ALEXEY NIKOLSKY/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article Analysis: The world holds its breath for Putin's next move

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba over the phone on Monday, ahead of Kuleba’s trip to Washington, DC, on Tuesday.

On the call, Blinken “noted our swift response” to Russia’s decision to recognize the pro-Moscow regions in eastern Ukraine, said a statement from State Department spokesperson Ned Price.

The two top officials discussed the measures the US announced Monday, as well as “additional steps,” said the statement.

Kuleba will meet with Blinken in Washington, then head to New York on Wednesday to address the UN General Assembly, according to the Ukrainian foreign minister’s official website.

At an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Monday, the Ukraine ambassador to the UN condemned Russia’s decision to recognize pro-Moscow regions of Ukraine as “illegal and illegitimate.”

“Today the entire membership of the United Nations is under attack,” said Sergiy Kyslytsya. “The internationally recognized borders of Ukraine have been and will remain unchangeable, regardless of any actions and statements by the Russian federation.

“The political leadership of the Russian federation shall bear full responsibility for the outcomes of the decision taken,” he added. “Recognition of the occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine may be considered as unilateral withdrawal by Russia from the Minsk agreement.”

What is the Minsk agreement? The 2015 agreement was hammered out in the Belarusian capital in a bid to end what was then a bloody 10-month conflict in eastern Ukraine. It led to a shaky ceasefire, and and the conflict settled into static warfare along the Line of Contact that separates the Ukrainian government and separatist-controlled areas.

The agreements ban heavy weapons near the Line of Contact – but it was never fully implemented and key issues remain unresolved.

Call for UN action: At the Monday meeting, Kyslytsya called for other nations to take action. “It is critical to see now who is our true friend and partner, who is on the side of the UN charter, and who will continue to deter Russia by words only,” he said.

He called for Russia to withdraw its troops from the region and cancel its recognition of the two pro-Moscow regions of Ukraine, before echoing the words spoken earlier in the day by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: “We are on our land. We are not afraid of anything or anyone. We owe nothing to anyone. And we will not give away anything to anyone.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the nation early on Tuesday saying “we don’t owe anything to anyone, and we will not give away anything to anyone” following Russia’s recent actions.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered what he called “peacekeeping” troops into two pro-Moscow regions of eastern Ukraine, after recognizing their independence. 

“We are on our land, we are not afraid of anything and anyone, we don’t owe anything to anyone, and we will not give away anything to anyone. And we are confident of this,” Zelensky said in his video address, adding said the move was a violation of Ukraine’s “national integrity and sovereignty.”

Zelensky added that Ukraine’s international borders will “remain as such” despite Russia’s “declarations and threats,” and he said Ukraine counted on the “clear and effective steps” from its international supporters.

He said Ukraine had initiated an emergency meeting with the Normandy Four, which include Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France.

He warned that Putin’s latest move undermined current “peaceful” negotiations and “may mean a one-sided exit of Russian Federation out of the Minsk Agreement and ignoring of Normandy agreement.”

Zelensky reiterated that Ukraine wanted “peace” though had been prepared for a Russian act of aggression for a “long time.”

To Ukrainian citizens, he said Ukraine would deal with the crisis calmly and confidently, and he thanked the entire nation for their cool-headed reaction to the latest developments. He assured citizens there was no reason for a “sleepless night.”

President Joe Biden plans to impose new sanctions on trade and financing in the two pro-Moscow territories in Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to recognize as independent on Monday.

In a statement, the White House said Biden would sign an executive order that would “prohibit new investment, trade, and financing by US persons to, from, or in the so-called DNR and LNR regions of Ukraine.”

Putin signed decrees recognizing the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic Monday in a ceremony carried on state television earlier on Monday.

Biden’s executive order will also allow the US to impose sanctions on anyone operating in those areas. And the White House said it would “soon announce additional measures related to today’s blatant violation of Russia’s international commitments.”

“To be clear: these measures are separate from and would be in addition to the swift and severe economic measures we have been preparing in coordination with Allies and partners should Russia further invade Ukraine,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki wrote in a statement.

The US response followed a lengthy speech from Putin Monday attacking both Ukraine and the West and his signing of the decrees recognizing the two controversial separatist-held regions.

Read more.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees recognizing two controversial separatist-held regions, the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic, Monday in a ceremony carried on state television.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has previously promised “a swift and firm response” from the US and allies and partners if Russia moves to recognize Ukraine’s breakaway regions as part of Russian territory, calling such a move a “gross violation of international law.”

Here’s why the recognition of the separatist-held regions is significant:

War broke out in 2014 after Russian-backed rebels seized government buildings in towns and cities across eastern Ukraine. Intense fighting left portions of the Donbas region’s eastern Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts in the hands of Russian-backed separatists. Russia also annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 in a move that sparked global condemnation.

The separatist-controlled areas in Donbas became known as the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The Ukrainian government in Kyiv asserts the two regions are in effect Russian-occupied. The self-declared republics are not recognized by any government, including Russia until Monday. The Ukrainian government refuses to talk directly with either separatist republic.

The Minsk II agreement of 2015 led to a shaky ceasefire agreement, and the conflict settled into static warfare along the Line of Contact that separates the Ukrainian government and separatist-controlled areas. The Minsk Agreements (named after the capital of Belarus where they were concluded) ban heavy weapons near the Line of Contact.

Language around the conflict is heavily politicized. The Ukrainian government calls separatist forces “invaders” and “occupiers.” Russian media calls separatist forces “militias” and maintains that they are locals defending themselves against the Kyiv government.

More than 14,000 people have died in the conflict in Donbas since 2014. Ukraine says 1.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes, with most staying in the areas of Donbas that remain under Ukrainian control and about 200,000 resettling in the wider Kyiv region.