Russia-Ukraine live updates: U.S. calls Russia’s actions an ‘invasion,’ readies new sanctions; Biden to speak

Russia’s recent moves in Ukraine have created the most dangerous moment for European security in a generation, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned Tuesday, and the alliance sees every indication that Moscow is still planning for a “full-scale” attack.

“Moscow has moved from covert attempts to destabilize Ukraine to overt military action,” he told reporters in Brussels following an emergency meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission.

Stoltenberg said Russia has 150,000 troops massed around Ukraine and noted that they are increasingly in combat formations.

“They are out of their camps, in the field and ready to strike,” he said.

Despite these warnings, Stoltenberg did not announce significant new moves. He said NATO has bolstered its presence in the eastern part of the alliance and could do even more “if necessary.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent an appeal to lawmakers to deploy military forces abroad late Tuesday, as the Defense Ministry claimed the situation in separatist regions in eastern Ukraine was deteriorating and vowed to do all it could to “bring peace.”

Members of Russia’s upper house, the Federation Council, voted unanimously to allow Putin to send troops outside of Russia.

Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said this would allow Russia to deploy military forces in the separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, calling them “peacekeeping forces.”

Putin appeared poised to order Russian forces into the separatist regions after recognizing them as states on Monday.

Fears of an invasion deepened Tuesday when it emerged that Moscow had recognized the territorial claims of separatists reaching well beyond the area they now occupy — extending to areas under Ukraine government control including the crucial Mariupol port on the Sea of Azov.

Western officials say Russian claims in recent days that Ukraine attacked the separatists areas appeared to be preparing a pretext to invade. Kyiv officials have denied the attacks, and Russian officials have produce no evidence of the “genocide” Putin has insisted is occurring.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov said Tuesday the situation in the separatist regions was worsening, vowing to defend Russian citizens there.

Since 2019, Russia has fast-tracked 800,000 Russian passports to Ukrainians in the separatist areas, sparking warnings from analysts this could become a pretext to invade in their defense.

President Biden plans to “provide an update on Russia and Ukraine” on Tuesday afternoon, the White House announced. He is expected to speak about sanctions in response to Russia’s deployment of troops into two pro-Russian separatist regions of Ukraine.

The remarks are scheduled to take place from the East Room of the White House at 1 p.m.

The White House did not provide additional details.

MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin denied Tuesday that his recognition of separatists’ claims to a large swath of Ukraine showed his ambition to re-create an empire.

Putin’s recognition of large areas now under Ukrainian government control as belonging to the separatists in eastern Ukraine undermined Ukraine’s territorial integrity and paved the way for more conflict and a potential invasion.

Putin does not see Ukraine as a sovereign country, he said Monday in a rambling, angry televised address. And he has claimed that the country can never succeed until it bows to Moscow instead of building ties with the West. He has written that Russia and Ukraine are “one people” and that he sees Belarus as part of his “Russian world.”

But the Russian leader insisted Tuesday that he accepts the reality of the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago, saying he knew that his recognition of the separatists’ claims would ignite comment.

“We were expecting speculation on the subject and claims that Russia sought to rebuild an empire within imperial borders,” Putin said, meeting Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in the Kremlin. “This is absolutely wrong.”

In 2005, Putin said the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union “was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” He lamented that tens of millions of Russians — meaning Russian speakers of Russian descent — became citizens of other former Soviet countries.

Russia has issued passports to 800,000 Ukrainians in the separatist east since 2019 and on Monday accused Kyiv of “genocide” there, paving the way for Russian forces to move in as “peacekeepers” to defend its citizens. Before the evacuation of an undetermined number of civilians from the separatist regions to Russia last week, an estimated 3.8 million people lived in two self-proclaimed rebel “republics” in eastern Ukraine. The territory currently held by the separatists accounts for about a third of the region that they claim, Ukrainian forces having recaptured much of it since the war began in 2014.

Putin said that Russia strove to have good relations with former Soviet states and to “keep the interests of every party in mind” but that relations with Ukraine frayed after 2014. That was the year he annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and backed separatists in the east, leading to a war that has killed almost 14,000 people and continues to this day.

LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Britain’s first tranche of sanctions against Russia on Tuesday for its latest moves into Ukraine, targeting five Russian banks and three Russian billionaires who are members of President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. Speaking in the House of Commons, Johnson said any assets held in Britain by the banks and individuals will be frozen and that the three business executives will be banned from entering the country and doing business here. The three billionaires are:

The business executives were previously slapped with sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department and classified by the U.S. government as Russian oligarchs. Timchenko and Boris Rotenberg were hit with sanctions in 2014 after the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea and have been described by the U.S. government as “members of the Russian leadership’s inner circle.” The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Igor Rotenberg in 2018.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that the United States welcomes Germany’s announcement that it would halt the regulatory approval process for Nord Stream 2, a controversial gas pipeline project between Germany and Russia, following Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.

“@POTUS made clear that if Russia invaded Ukraine, we would act with Germany to ensure Nord Stream 2 does not move forward,” Psaki said in a tweet. “We have been in close consultations with Germany overnight and welcome their announcement. We will be following up with our own measures today.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made the announcement regarding the pipeline Tuesday after reports emerged that Russia has moved troops into separatist regions of eastern Ukraine.

During a visit to the White House this month, Scholz said Germany was “absolutely united” with the United States on potential responses to Russian aggression toward Ukraine but remained vague about steps his country was prepared to take on the pipeline.

Jonathan Finer, the White House principal deputy national security adviser, used the term “invasion” Tuesday to describe Russia’s deployment of troops into two pro-Russian separatist regions of Ukraine.

“We think this is, yes, the beginning of an invasion, Russia’s latest invasion into Ukraine, and you’re already seeing the beginning of our response,” Finer said during a CNN interview in which he was pressed on whether the term is appropriate. He added that the White House would have more to say Tuesday about additional sanctions on Russia in response to the “egregious step they took yesterday away from diplomacy and down the further path toward war.”

His comments differed from those of Biden administration officials on Monday, when they sought to hit back at Russia’s aggressive action while stopping short of declaring that it had officially invaded Ukraine, which would trigger an array of hard-hitting sanctions that President Biden has been warning about for months.

Instead, the United States imposed a smaller set of sanctions prohibiting U.S. investment and trade specifically in the breakaway regions.

During the interview, Finer rejected any suggestion that there is a semantic difference between “invasion” and “beginning of an invasion.”

“An invasion is an invasion, and that is what’s underway,” he said.

“For the third or fourth time, I am calling it an invasion,” Finer said later in the interview.

In addition to the U.S. sanctions announced Monday, Finer also noted that Germany has announced it would halt the regulatory approval process for Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline project between Germany and Russia, following Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.

KYIV, Ukraine — Scores of Ukrainian service members gathered outside the country’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday morning for a somber ceremony honoring Capt. Anton Sydorov, 35, an intelligence officer who was killed in a shelling attack in the Donbas region on Feb. 19. He left behind three young daughters.

Six men in dress uniform carried Sydorov’s casket along the driveway in front of the ministry before lowering it onto a bier in front of his relatives and top Ukrainian officials, including Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov. They then carefully draped the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag over his casket. Reznikov described him as a “warrior who defended his country.”

“Excuse us for what happened,” he said, addressing Sydorov’s family. “But we will not forget that. And we will not forgive either.”

Lt. Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, reflected on Sydorov’s “cheerful character, his thirst for life.”

“Most importantly, we will find the man who killed him,” he said. “And will terminate him.”

Oleksandr Levchenko, who previously served under Sydorov, said he expects difficult times ahead but vowed not to panic.

“I will be here [in Kyiv] until the very last moment,” he said. But, he added, “should it be needed, I will go to the east right away.”