Western leaders warn that Russia has laid out plans for an all-out invasion of Ukraine, and announced the first batch of sanctions against Moscow.
chairperson Joe Biden described events currently unfolding in Ukraine as “the beginning of a Russian invasion”, as he revealed tough new measures to punish Moscow on Tuesday.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Russia was “wanting” to launch a “full-scale invasion” of Ukraine, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said “Putin has built up enough troops along Ukraine’s border to really be able to do so.” completely invade this country.”
Here’s what you need to know.
What did Russia do? On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin orders the army into Donetsk and Luhansk – two pro-Moscow regions of the separatists in eastern Ukraine – in what the Kremlin calls a “peacekeeping” mission. The move comes just hours after he signed a decree recognizing the independence of the regions.
Many US and Western officials warn this could be the opening blow to a larger military campaign against Ukraine. More than 150,000 Russian troops today besiege Ukraine on three sides, according to estimates by U.S. and Ukrainian intelligence officials.
How did Ukraine react? Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said Ukraine’s response to a potential attack “will be immediate”.
The State of Emergency will apply to all regions of Ukraine under government control, will last at least 30 days.
But the government has not closed the door to a possible solution. On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he still pursued diplomacy as a way out of the crisis; Reservists will be called up for military training, he said, but there will be no general mobilization of the armed forces.
“We desire peace and calm but if we are silent today tomorrow we will be gone,” he said in a speech to the nation.
How did the world react? Russia’s actions have been strongly condemned by many countries, with Western leaders imposing new sanctions on Tuesday and severing a key pipeline with Russia.
Biden announced that the United States would sanction Russian financial institutions and oligarchs. The European Union also sanctioned 351 Russian lawmakers who voted to recognize the breakaway regions, and the United Kingdom announced sanctions against five Russian banks and three Russian oligarchs.
Also on Tuesday, Germany said it stopped validating $11 billion 750 miles long pipeline direct connection between Russia and Germany. The Nord Stream 2 The project was completed in September but has yet to receive the final green light from German regulators. Without that, natural gas could not flow through the pipeline from the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.
On Wednesday, Japan and Australia joined the list of countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia, Donetsk and Luhansk.
However, China, which has maintained a strong friendship for many years with Russia, has criticized Western sanctions. A State Department spokesman on Wednesday said they were “never a fundamental and effective way to deal with problems.”
