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WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Russia has begun "an invasion" of Ukraine, and he announced sweeping sanctions on a major Russian bank VEB and its military bank.
The sanctions will prohibit American financial institutions from processing transactions for VEB and its military bank. This would effectively cut the banks out of transactions involving U.S. dollars, the global reserve currency.Â
Biden also announced that the United States will sanction Russia's sovereign debt.
Biden's announcement came after Russia's parliament approved President Vladimir Putin's request on Tuesday to use military force outside the country's borders, a development that appears designed to authorize a broader attack on Ukraine.
But until Tuesday, Biden had not used the word "invasion" himself to describe the Russian military deployment in the two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine.
Biden has long promised to impose severe economic sanctions against Russia if Moscow further invades Ukraine, but the White House had not said specifically what they would be.
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