প্রকাশ: 23/02/2022
Highlights:
US' Blinken cancels meeting with Russia's Lavrov
U.S and UK target banks, EU
blacklists more politicians
Germany freezes gas pipeline project with Russia
West fears full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia
Western nations on
Tuesday punished Russia with new sanctions for ordering troops
into separatist regions of eastern Ukraine and threatened to go
further if Moscow launched an all-out invasion of its neighbour.
The United States, the European Union, Canada and Britain
announced plans to target banks and elites while Germany halted a major gas
pipeline project from Russia, which they say has
amassed more than 150,000 troops near Ukraine's borders. Moscow
has denied planning an invasion.
One of the worst security crises in Europe in decades is
unfolding as Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered soldiers into
Donetsk and Luhansk to "keep the peace." Washington has dismissed
that as "nonsense".
Satellite imagery over the past 24 hours shows several new
troop and equipment deployments
in western Russia and more than 100 vehicles at a small
airfield in southern Belarus, which borders Ukraine, according to US firm
Maxar.
Weeks of intense diplomacy have so far failed and on Tuesday
both US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French foreign minister Jean-Yves
Le Drian cancelled separate meetings scheduled with Russian counterpart
Sergei Lavrov.
"To put it simply Russia just announced that
it is carving out a big chunk of Ukraine," Biden said on
Tuesday.
"This is the beginning of
a Russian invasion."
Plans announced by Biden to bolster Estonia, Latvia and
Lithuania include sending 800 infantry soldiers and up to eight F-35 fighter
jets to locations along NATO's eastern flank, a US official said, but are a
redistribution, not additions.
Putin did not watch Biden's speech and Russia will
first look at what the United States has outlined before responding,
according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, cited by Russian news
agencies.
Early on Wednesday, Putin said he was always open to finding
diplomatic solutions but that "the interests of Russia and the
security of our citizens are unconditional for us."
Moscow is calling for security guarantees, including a
promise that Ukraine will never join NATO, while the US and its
allies offer Putin confidence-building and arms control steps to defuse the
stand-off.
A meeting between Biden and Putin, brokered by France,
"certainly is not in the plans" at this point in time, the White
House said on Tuesday.
MORE SANCTIONS TO COME?
US sanctions are being applied to VEB bank
and Russia's military bank, Promsvyazbank, which does defence deals, Biden
said. Starting on Tuesday, sanctions will begin against Russian
elites and their family members.
Tass news agency cited Promsvyazbank as saying
the sanctions would not have a significant effect since it had taken
precautionary measures ahead of time. It did not give details.
Washington also said that it restricted dealings in the
secondary market with Russia's sovereign debt for bonds issued after March
1.
Canada also announced similar steps and will
impose sanctions on members of the Russian parliament who voted
for the decision to recognise the two separatist areas.
But many Western nations held off the
strictest sanctions as they try to dissuade a larger Russian
assault. Russia's Sberbank SBER.MM and
VTB VTBR.MM would face sanctions if Moscow proceeds with an invasion,
said a senior US official, warning of a hit to the wider economy.
"We are fully prepared with a very large number of
countries across the world to implement ... export control measures."
The European Union and Britain chiefly targeted Russian
banks and their ability to operate internationally with the impact likely to be
minimal.
Lavrov earlier brushed off the threat of sanctions.
"Our European, American, British colleagues will not
stop and will not calm down until they have exhausted all their possibilities
for the so-called punishment of Russia," he said.
MARKETS WORRY, SEPARATISTS CELEBRATE
The prospect of a disruption to energy supplies and fears of
war - stoked by reports of shelling in some areas and movements of unmarked
tanks overnight in the city of Donetsk - rattled markets and sent oil prices to
their highest level since 2014.
Germany put the brakes on the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline and
Britain also hit Russian banks with sanctions. The Russian
foreign ministry criticised the new measures as "illegitimate".
Germany is Russia's biggest customer for natural gas,
and the decision by Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the pipeline - built but awaiting
approval - was widely seen as one of the strongest measures Europe could take.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba hailed the move.
"This is a morally, politically and practically correct
step in the current circumstances," he said. "True leadership means
tough decisions in difficult times. Germany's move proves just that."
The Kremlin said it hoped the delay was temporary. Putin
said Russia "aims to continue uninterrupted supplies" of
energy to the world.
Following Russia's recognition of the independence of
Donetsk and Luhansk, some residents in Donetsk city celebrated, with cars
flying Russian flags and sounding their horns.
But several blasts could be heard at midnight in the centre
of the separatist-held city, a Reuters witness said.
The Russian-backed regions broke away from Ukrainian
government control in 2014 and proclaimed themselves independent "people's
republics" after a pro-Moscow Ukrainian president was ousted in Kyiv.
"I know that the blood I spilled with my comrades and
our labours and efforts and the losses of civilians were not in vain all this
time," Dmitry, a former member of a pro-Russian militia, said in Donetsk
on Tuesday.
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