Morgan Artyukhina All materialsWrite to the authorBeing updatedUS President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he was imposing the first tranche of economic sanctions against the Russian Federation in response to Moscow’s recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and deployment of peacekeeping forces to the Donbass.“Russia just announced that it is carving out a big chunk of Ukraine,” Biden said on Tuesday, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin was “setting up a rationale to take more territory by force.”“This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, as he asked permission for in his Duma,” he continued.“Who in the Lord’s name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belonged to his neighbors?” Biden asked. “This is a flagrant violation of international law and it demands a firm response from the international community.”The US president announced the first tranche of sanctions against Russia, which target VEB and its military bank, Russia’s sovereign debt, and imposes sanctions on Russian “elites and their families.” He also said he had worked with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to ensure that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which would have brought liquefied natural gas from Russia to German, will not open.The sanctions are slated to take effect beginning on Wednesday. Biden said the US was prepared to implement sanctions ‘far beyond” those in 2014 if Russia attacks Ukraine.He also revealed that US troops would be shifted from elsewhere in Europe into the Baltic States in response to Russian troops remaining in Belarus.On Monday, Putin announced he was moving to recognize the independence of the Lugansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic, two breakaway states in the Donbass region that declared independence from Ukraine in 2014, following the US-backed coup in Kiev. He explained on Tuesday that the Minsk Protocol, which was supposed to lead to peace in the Donbass conflict, had long been killed by Kiev, which refused to implement the deal reached with Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).The decision came as Ukrainian forces dramatically escalated their attacks on the Donbass republics last week, sending tens of thousands of civilians fleeing to safety in Russia’s Rostov region. However, the US claimed the attacks were fake and part of a provocation planned by Moscow to justify intervention in Ukraine.DETAILS TO FOLLOW
Sourse: sputniknews.com