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What next?
The risk of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia is “unfortunately very, very high,” Sonia Mycak, of the Australian National University’s Centre for European Studies, told CNBC on Tuesday. “What’s happened in the last 24 hours is simply part of that war strategy that has been going on now for eight years,” Mycak said.
“That is the danger at this point — that the so-called recognition of independent regions in Ukraine is just an excuse to enter with even more military force than he has already done so to this point, and then incorporate those territories into the Russian Federation, thereby annexing them,” she added.
U.S. stocks were lower on Tuesday as investors, fresh from a three-day Presidents Day weekend, reacted to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to order troops to so-called breakaway regions of Ukraine, bringing the country closer to a full-scale invasion and further rattling global stock markets.
“‘What’s happened in the last 24 hours is simply part of that war strategy that has been going on now for eight years.’”
In a statement Monday, the White House said President Joe Biden would issue an executive order banning “new investment, trade, and financing by U.S. persons to, from, or in the so-called DNR and LNR regions of Ukraine, and financing by U.S. persons to, from, or in the so-called DNR and LNR regions of Ukraine.”
On Tuesday, a senior U.S. official referred to Russia’s actions as “the beginning of an invasion.” “An invasion is an invasion and that is what is underway,” principal deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told CNN. “I am calling it an invasion.”
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement Monday: “Today, Russia announced that it will recognize as ‘independent states’ parts of the sovereign territory of Ukraine in its Donbas region, which is currently controlled by Russia’s proxies.
“This is an unprovoked violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she said. “We support Ukraine’s call for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council. The Security Council must demand that Russia respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, a UN Member State.”
