Russia-Ukraine live updates: Ukraine prepares state of emergency, fights off new cyberattacks

LVIV, Ukraine — The leaders of Poland and Lithuania joined Ukraine in calling Wednesday for the “swift introduction of robust package of sanctions” against Moscow and expressing support for Ukraine’s candidacy to become a member of the European Union.

In a joint statement after a meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, Poland’s Andrzej Duda and Lithuania’s Gitanas Nauseda also expressed the “strongest condemnation” of Russia’s decision to recognize two pro-Moscow separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.

“We call upon the international community to take resolute and far-reaching steps in response to this yet another act of aggression committed by Russia against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” the three presidents said.

These would include further measures against the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, the statement said. Berlin announced Tuesday it was freezing the certification process for the project, in response to Moscow’s recognition of the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

In their statement, Duda, Nauseda and Zelensky also said that Ukraine “deserves E.U. candidate status” and that Poland and Lithuania would “support Ukraine in achieving this goal.”

After the presidents’ meeting, Duda said at a joint news conference that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions were a threat “not only to Ukraine, but to our entire region, in particular to the eastern flank of NATO and the entire European Union.”

“We must say a clear stop to Russia’s neo-imperial policy,” Duda added.

MOSCOW — Russia’s Foreign Ministry vowed a “tough response” Wednesday to Washington’s sanctions package that hit Russian sovereign debt and two banks that finance infrastructure and defense.

The package also targeted Russian elites and their families.

Russia’s response measures would not necessarily be symmetrical but would be “well-grounded” and painful, the ministry said in a statement. It said Russia has proved it could withstand the impact of all previous Western sanctions packages.

The ministry said that the U.S. policy of trying to change Russia’s course through repeated sanctions amounted to “blackmail, intimidation and threats,” adding that this would not work with a global power such as Russia.

The United States’ reliance on sanctions showed its foreign policy to be “trapped in the stereotypes of a unipolar world with a false belief that the U.S. still has the right and the ability to impose its own rules of the world order,” the statement said.

Invoking Cold War rhetoric, it said the United States is being emulated by “satellites and clients, who have completely lost their independence.”

After Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a meeting this week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the ministry said Russia was still “open to diplomacy based on the principles of mutual respect, equality and consideration for each other’s interests.”

The White House is defending a first round of sanctions on Russia as Ukraine pushes for more.

“Let me just be really clear: We did hit hard yesterday, and it was only a demonstration effect,” Daleep Singh, a deputy national security adviser, said Wednesday during an appearance on CNN.

On Tuesday, Biden announced a “first tranche” of U.S. sanctions against Russia that targets two financial institutions, Russian sovereign debt, and Russian elites and their family members.

During the CNN interview, Singh was asked to respond to a tweet from Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, urging the United States and its European allies to hit harder.

Singh said some of the media seem to have a “bloodlust” for imposing sanctions.

“But the point the Ukrainians are making is right,” Singh said. “These costs are going to escalate from here.”

Singh argued that the “signaling of sanctions” alone had already taken its toll on Russia’s economy, adding: “And now we’re starting to deliver.”

“Yesterday was a demonstration effect,” he said. “And that demonstration effect will go higher and higher. Russia is already feeling the pain, and let’s remember the bigger purpose. Our purpose is not to max out on sanctions. That serves no purpose to itself. Our purpose is to prevent a large-scale invasion and … seizure of large cities in Ukraine. Our purpose is to prevent human suffering that could involve tens of thousands of casualties. And our purpose is to prevent a puppet regime from taking over in Kyiv that bends to the will of Moscow. That’s what this is all about.”

Singh also urged caution in judging the impact of U.S. and European sanctions, saying, “Day 1 is not the way to judge whether it’s working.”

“Our purpose here is to make this as costly a strategic choice as possible for Russia,” he said. “We think we have the winning hand.”

For years, Europe’s dependence on Russian energy has held it back from taking powerful action against Kremlin mischief. But now, the Russia-Ukraine crisis is forcing a change unlike any before, driving the European Union to make plans for a permanent, far-reaching break from Russian oil and gas, European policymakers said.

The strategy to split from Russian energy, expected to be announced by the European Commission next week, would give Europe a freer political hand against Russia than it has had in the past. It would take years and come with a hefty bill for European taxpayers. But it has the crucial backing of Germany, a nation so entangled with Russia that one of its former chancellors, Gerhard Schröder, is the chairman of Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil company.

The European Commission’s planned strategy next week aims to accelerate a transition to renewable energy so that Europe never again is so dependent on the Kremlin to keep households warm and factories humming.

Germany could get enough natural gas without Russian imports if necessary, the economy minister said Wednesday after Berlin announced it would halt the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project with Moscow.

Still, he cautioned against speculation and added that energy relations with Russia have survived other crises in the past. “The possibility that Germany gets enough gas and resources beyond Russian gas imports is there,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck told public radio Deutschlandfunk.

The minister said Germany’s gas supply is secure and that consumers would get relief if prices shoot up. Habeck also noted that freezing the certification process for the $11 billion pipeline project did not necessarily mean it could never happen. But he maintained that the country must examine whether relying on gas flowing through a pipeline from Russia would make supplies more vulnerable.

The question of halting the multiyear pipeline plan had become a sticking point between the United States and Germany in recent weeks as Western governments pledged to respond to Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine. Moscow’s latest moves — notably recognizing two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent states and sending in troops to reinforce pro-Moscow separatists there — triggered a round of Western sanctions this week and prompted the German decision on the natural gas pipeline.

Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council secretary, Oleksiy Danilov, announced plans Wednesday for a state of emergency, as the nation prepared to defend itself after Russian lawmakers approved President Vladimir Putin’s call to send troops to regions of eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine’s parliament also passed a law to allow people to carry firearms for defense.

Danilov said that under the state of emergency, curfews would be imposed in certain regions only “if necessary, in the event of increased Russian aggression.”

The 30-day state of emergency, which must be confirmed by parliament, allows Ukraine to impose curfews and restrictions on mass gatherings in certain regions. It does not apply to the two eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk that were recognized by Putin on Monday as independent states and where fighting broke out when Russia backed separatist rebels there in 2014. Two-thirds of the territory is under Kyiv’s control, and the rest is under insurgent control.

Putin’s move to recognize the regions in their entirety, not just the areas under rebel control, has sharply raised the risks of a major military escalation.

Danilov rejected Putin’s accusation that Ukraine might develop nuclear weapons, a charge used by Putin to try to justify his actions against Ukraine.

Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons in 1994 in return for guarantees in the Budapest Memorandum from Russia, the United States and Britain that they would not attack Ukraine.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said NATO membership would offer more protection for Ukraine than the memorandum.

He called for a summit of the signatories to the 1994 accord, demanding affirmation of its security guarantees. Otherwise, he warned, Ukraine could conclude that the Budapest agreement is not working.

KHARKIV, Ukraine — About 50 miles from where Russian troops and tanks are massed, a group of Ukrainians put their hands over their hearts, held up flags and sang the country’s national anthem.

“Glory to Ukraine, glory to heroes,” they said in unison Tuesday, before adding a crude quip about Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Activists in Kharkiv always meet on Feb. 22 — what they call Patriots’ Day — to commemorate the city’s stand against Ukraine’s ousted pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, who fled here eight years ago during the Maidan revolution that cemented Ukraine’s political bonds with the West. The day is also used to remember victims of the 2015 Kharkiv bombing, which took place during a rally to mark the anniversary of the uprising.

But this year’s demonstration was also an act of defiance just a day after Putin delivered a speech challenging Ukraine’s legitimacy as a sovereign state and recognized two Russian-backed separatist areas in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region as independent.

Former president Donald Trump’s remarks describing the Kremlin’s aggression toward Ukraine as “genius” have been panned by both Republican and Democratic critics, with Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) writing on Twitter that Trump’s “adulation” of Russian President Vladimir Putin “aids our enemies.”

In a Tuesday interview with “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show,” a conservative radio program, Tr