EU to hold emergency meeting, reportedly readies sanctions on key Putin allies

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that Russia’s recent decision to recognize two regions of Eastern Ukraine as “independent republics” is the modern day equivalent to Nazi Germany’s 1938 annexation of Sudetenland, a German-speaking region of what was then Czechoslovakia.

At the time, the annexation was agreed to by Western European leaders, who believed Adolf Hitler’s false claim that it was the only territory Nazi Germany intended to take over. A year later, Hitler invaded Poland and went on to invade most of Europe.

“This, my friends, is our moment. This is the Sudetenland, and that’s what people were saying there,” Pelosi, a California Democrat, said at the Capitol.

“You cannot ignore what Putin is doing. Nobody’s, of course, ignoring it. But you cannot take it any lighter than what it is: a total assault on democracy,” she added.

Pelosi’s remarks came a day after President Joe Biden announced sanctions on two Russian banks, the country’s sovereign debt and several individuals as a penalty for President Vladimir Putin’s declaration that two regions of Eastern Ukraine were “independent republics.”

Putin subsequently announced that Russia would send “peacekeeping” troops into the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, a move that outside observers said resembled a military attack positioning more than it did a “peacekeeping” mission.

The House of Representatives is on recess this week, but a bipartisan group of members sent a letter to Biden on Tuesday reminding him that the War Powers Resolution requires him to seek authorization from Congress for committing American troops to a conflict.

— Christina Wilkie

The United Kingdom warned the Russian government on Wednesday that it was ready to impose more rounds of devastating sanctions should Moscow push farther into Ukraine.

“This is just the start,” said Tariq Ahmad, Minister of State for the Commonwealth and the United Nations, referencing the U.K.’s previously announced sanctions.

“If Russia continues its campaign of aggression, we have a further package of sanctions ready to go. We asked the wider international community to join us in this effort,” Ahmad told the international forum.

Ahmad’s remarks follow the United Kingdom’s largest sanctions package against Russia.

“We must meet Russia’s aggressive acts with solidarity with strength including through coordinated sanctions to impose a severe cost on Russian interests and their economy,” he said.

Ahmad warned that further Russian military action will take a horrific toll not only on Ukrainians but also on Russians, calling both “victims of an unnecessary war of the Kremlin’s choosing.”

— Amanda Macias

Several Ukrainian government websites were down on Wednesday after a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, Mykhailo Fedorov, the head of Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation said in his Telegram channel.

A DDoS attack is when a hacker overwhelms a system with traffic so that others are unable to access it. Fedorov said the government websites were down as they attempted to switch traffic to another service to minimize damage.

Ukraine reported a cyber attack last week that affected its websites. Russia denied responsibility for that earlier attack.

—Lauren Feiner

The European Union is set to unveil sanctions on key allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to Moscow’s move to recognize two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine and send troops into the areas, The New York Times reported.

The retaliatory measures, which could be detailed Thursday, would target individuals including Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Putin’s chief of staff Anton Vaino, according to the Times. The bloc may also outline sanctions on key Russian media officials.

The EU already announced a first round of sanctions in response to the incursion. EU countries plan to hold an emergency meeting on Thursday, a spokesperson confirmed to CNBC.

The new round of sanctions would follow initial economic measures imposed by the EU, United States, United Kingdom and Canada. U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday threatened harsher sanctions if Russia continues to advance into Ukraine.

— Jacob Pramuk

In a grim speech to the United Nations, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba warned the international forum on Wednesday that Russia’s aggression toward its neighbors will disrupt world peace and security.

“Russia will not stop at Ukraine. If a permanent member of the UN Security Council succeeds in breaking literally all rules, other actors will be inspired by him and follow his pattern,” Kuleba said in a nearly 30-minutes address.

“Rules do not apply to him, to Russia, to Putin,” Kuleba said, adding that Kyiv still hopes for a peaceful resolution to the ongoing crisis.

“We Ukrainians want peace and we want to resolve all issues through diplomacy,” Kuleba said.

“We stand ready for all possible scenarios and ready to protect our land and our people,” he said, adding that Kyiv will exercise its “inherent right of self-defense.”

— Amanda Macias

The European Union will hold an emergency meeting Thursday to discuss the deteriorating security situation on Ukraine’s borders, a spokesperson for the 27-member group confirmed to CNBC.

The emergency in-person meeting of European Union members in Brussels is slated to take place at 8 p.m. local time or 2 p.m. ET.

In a letter to EU members, European Council President Charles Michel said the “aggressive actions by the Russian Federation violate international law and the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. They also undermine the European security order.”

“It is important that we continue to be united and determined and jointly define our collective approach and actions,” he added.

The meeting comes exactly one week after the most recent hastily-called summit to discuss the ongoing Ukraine crisis. Unanimity among the 27 nations is required for the bloc to impose sanctions.

— Steven Kopack and Amanda Macias

Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy referred to Russia’s recognition of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, and Putin’s ordering of troops into the region, as a crime.

“This is an act of aggression against Ukraine [and] its sovereignty [and] integrity,” he said. “The response of the international community to this crime should be decisive and immediate and harsh.”

Zelenskyy said he welcomed new sanctions imposed on Russia in recent days by the EU, the U.S., the U.K. and Canada.

“We do expect further sanctioning of Russia,” he added. “It is also very important to see Germany’s decision to put on hold certification of Nord Stream 2. It is very important to fully stop this project, which is a weapon that is already being used against Ukraine, against Europe.”

Nord Stream 2 is a highly contentious gas pipeline that had been designed to deliver Russian gas directly to Germany under the Baltic Sea, bypassing Ukraine. If approved, the project would double the amount of gas flowing from Russia to Germany.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on Tuesday that he had taken steps to halt approval of the pipeline in the wake of Russia’s military escalation in Ukraine.

— Chloe Taylor

The Kremlin has hit out at the sanctions imposed on Moscow by U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday.

In a post on its official Facebook page, the Russian Foreign Ministry called the sanctions “ineffective and counter-productive for America’s own interests.”

“Russia has proved that it can minimize the losses of these sanctions. More than that, the sanctions pressure will not affect our resolve to keep standing up for our interests,” the ministry said.

It claimed that the U.S. had “a false conviction that [it] still has the right to impose its own rules of the world order,” dubbing the new sanctions “blackmail.”

“We are open only towards diplomacy that is based on principles of mutual respect, equality and consideration of each other’s interests,” the ministry added. “There is no doubt there will be a strong response to the sanctions, not necessarily a symmetrical one, but measured and considerable for the American side.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a speech on Wednesday that Moscow was open to diplomacy, despite having ordered troops into eastern Ukraine a day earlier.

— Chloe Taylor

Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko has outlined what Ukrainians might expect their lives to look like if lawmakers approve the government’s proposed state of emergency.

Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council declared a state of emergency throughout the country on Wednesday, and lawmakers must vote on whether to approve it within 48 hours.

In a speech on Wednesday, Klitschko said that under a state of emergency vehicle movement may be restricted, there would be increased controls on entry and exits to and from cities and regions, and there would be a ban on mass events and rallies.

Urging the people of Kyiv not to panic, Klitschko said the prospect of a state of emergency is, at this stage, “a precautionary step to ensure law and order and public safety in cities, towns and villages.”

“The city authorities are working, we are all on the ground,” he said.

“We make the necessary decisions to support the city, to create a system of territorial defense [and] to ensure the operation of public transport, institutions and establishments ... We must and will be able to overcome these challenges only together.”

— Chloe Taylor

U.S. satellite imagery company Maxar has collected new images that it says show additional deployments of Russian troops, movement of additional logistics and supplies and increased military activity near the Ukrainian border in southern Belarus and western Russia.

The images were collected on Feb. 22.

— Chloe Taylor

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov shared footage on Wednesday of an ammunition delivery from Canada arriving in Ukraine.

— Chloe Taylor

Speaking to NBC’s “Today,” Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, said he heard nothing in the speech Putin gave on Monday that suggested the Russian president was interested in diplomacy.

McFaul added that Putin “doesn’t care about face-saving,” and that sanctions and giving military aid to Ukraine were “not enough to deter Putin.”

“Tragically, I think he’s going to go in, he’s going to go in big, and this will probably be the largest war in Europe since 1939,” he said.

— Chloe Taylor

Russian state-controlled media reported on Wednesday that Moscow had begun to evacuate personnel from its embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.

A Reuters witness reported on Wednesday that the Russian embassy in Kyiv had taken down its flag.

According to Russian state news outlet RIA, Andrei Rudenko, deputy head of Russia’s Foreign Ministry, said Moscow does not want to break off diplomatic relations with Kyiv.

The Kremlin announced this week that it would recognize the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, with Russian President Vladimir Putin ordering troops into those regions, where fighting between pro-Russia separatists and Ukrainian forces has been ongoing for eight years.

Officials from the U.S. and the U.K. have referred to the move as the beginning of an invasion of Ukraine.

— Chloe Taylor

The Russian ambassador to the U.S. has hit out at the sweeping sanctions Washington has said it will impose on Moscow.

In a post on the official Facebook page of the Russian embassy in the U.S., Ambassador Anatoly Antonov argued that “sanctions cannot solve a thing.”

“It is hard to imagine that there is a person in Washington who expects Russia to revise its foreign policy under a threat of restrictions,” he said. “I don’t remember a single day when our country lived without any restrictions from the Western world. We have learned to work in such conditions. And not only to survive, but also to develop our state.”

Many western countries, including the U.S., imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014 after Moscow invaded and annexed Crimea.

“There is no doubt that the sanctions introduced against us will hit global financial and energy markets,” Antonov added, warning: “The United States will not be left out, with its ordinary citizens feeling the consequences of the price increase in full.”

— Chloe Taylor

Britain is set to send more weapons to Ukraine, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Johnson said the decision had been made “in light of the increasingly threatening behavior from Russia.”

“The U.K. will shortly be providing a further package of military support to Ukraine,” he said. “This will include lethal aid in the form of defensive weapons, and non-lethal aid.”

— Chloe Taylor

The U.K. announced Wednesday that it would guarantee up to $500 million in loans in a bid to help stabilize Ukraine’s economy and mitigate the impact of Russian military aggression.

British Foreign Minister Liz Truss said in a statement that the U.K. was using its “economic expertise and strength to support the people of Ukraine.”

“These guarantees can help inject vital capital into Ukraine and help its economy weather the storm of Russian aggression,” she said.

“Britain stands four-square behind Ukraine and its people. We stand ready to offer direct economic support, providing defensive weapons, and exposing Russian attempts to engineer fake pretexts for invasion.”

— Chloe Taylor

A senior Russian official said Wednesday that no force in the world could change Moscow’s recognition of two separatist-held regions in eastern Ukraine as independent republics, Reuters reported.

Visiting the leader of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, Andrey Turchak, a high-ranking member of Russia’s ruling party, said 93,000 people had been evacuated from the region into Russia, according to Reuters.

— Chloe Taylor

Ukraine is set to impose a state of emergency across the entire country.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Ukraine’s top security official Oleksiy Danilov announced a state of emergency would be imposed for 30 days and could be extended for another 30 days. The measures must first be approved by parliament and a vote is expected in the coming days.

Regional commissions will be set up, Danilov said, which will include representatives of state and local authorities who can make decisions on security measures.

Danilov reiterated the government’s stance that martial law would be imposed in Ukraine if Russia launched a full-scale invasion of the country.

The state of emergency will apply to all Ukrainian territory, with the exception of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the country’s east, which have been under a state of emergency since 2014.

Around 13,000 people have died in a conflict in those regions in an eight-year war between government forces and pro-Moscow separatists.

Russia announced on Monday that it would officially recognize two separatist-held regions in eastern Ukraine as independent republics.

— Chloe Taylor

Ukraine’s Parliament approved sanctions on 351 Russian lawmakers on Wednesday, including those who voted to recognize the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.

The sanctions will ban lawmakers from traveling to Ukraine, and bar them from accessing property, capital, assets and business licenses, according to Reuters.

Ukrainian lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of imposing the sanctions.

— Chloe Taylor

European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova has argued that excluding Russian President Vladimir Putin from the EU’s sanctions package is a mistake.

“Vladimir Putin should be first on the list,” Jourova told Czech newspaper Hospodarske Noviny on Wednesday.

“It is always a question of whether [excluding Putin] is a professional art of diplomacy or weakness. I would see it as the latter,” she added, according to a Reuters translation.

The EU imposed sanctions on Russia on Tuesday in response to the Kremlin ordering troops into eastern Ukraine and recognizing two breakaway areas in the region as independent.

The bloc’s sanctions package, which secured unanimous approval, includes sanctions on all members of Russia’s lower house of parliament who voted to recognize the breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine. The EU sanctions will also ban investors in member states from trading Russian sovereign debt, and clamp down on trade with eastern Ukraine’s self-declared republics.

— Chloe Taylor

China has criticized coordinated efforts to sanction Russia over its action in Ukraine.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters at a regular press briefing on Wednesday that China’s government opposed the move.

“Sanctions have never been an effective way to solve problems, and China has always opposed unilateral sanctions,” she said, according to Chinese state-run broadcaster CGTN.

Several countries, including the U.S., the U.K., Australia and Japan have imposed new sanctions on Russia in recent days.

— Chloe Taylor

Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking “regime change” and will likely invade the rest of Ukraine, says Jeffrey Edmonds, a former director for Russia at the National Security Council.

Putin will likely go “all the way to the capital,” Edmonds said, referring to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.

The Russian president is trying to create a pretext for invading the rest of Ukraine, he said, adding: “What you’re seeing right now is a lot of false flag operations. These claims… [that] the people on the East are having to fight back this onslaught of Ukrainian offensives, which just isn’t true.”

Given the significant military build-up, it doesn’t make sense for Putin to just hold on to the separatist territories.

“He’s had these territories since 2014, so just moving more troops in there, I don’t think gets him what he wants,” he said.

— Chelsea Ong

Ukraine is considered the “breadbasket of Europe,” and an invasion would result in the food supply chain getting “hit hard,” said Alan Holland, CEO and founder at sourcing technology company Keelvar.

Ukraine produces wheat, barley and rye that much of Europe relies on, analysts said. Russia is also the world’s top wheat exporter. Together with Ukraine, both account for roughly 29% of the global wheat export market.

Ukraine is also a big producer of corn. “China is also a big recipient of Ukrainian corn — in fact, Ukraine replaced the U.S. as China’s top corn supplier in 2021,” said Dawn Tiura, president at Sourcing Industry Group.

Russia and Ukraine are big suppliers of metals and other commodities as well, analysts said.

— Weizhen Tan

Ukraine has warned its citizens not to travel to Russia, and advised any Ukrainians currently in Russia to leave immediately.

In a travel advisory issued on Wednesday, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said “the intensification of Russian aggression against Ukraine … may lead to significant restrictions on the provision of consular assistance in the Russian Federation.”

“We emphasize that ignoring these recommendations will significantly complicate ensuring proper protection of Ukrainian citizens in the Russian Federation,” the ministry added.

— Chloe Taylor

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called for Ukraine’s international partners to ratchet up pressure on Moscow with further economic curbs.

— Chloe Taylor

The International Monetary Fund is starting a new review of its $5 billion program in Ukraine, which Kyiv is hoping could lead to the disbursement of $700 million and reassure markets that its economy is stable, Reuters reported.

Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF, told CNBC’s Tania Bryer in an interview broadcast Wednesday that the organization was working with Ukrainian authorities and “a lot of progress” had been made.

″[We] remain focused on making sure that the Ukrainian economy has sound fundamentals,” she said. “Our intention is to continue the review and complete the review, so we can provide a much needed financial injection for the Ukrainian economy. We have still $2.2 billion available to disburse by the end of June and we are on track to complete the necessary prerequisites for this disbursement.”

Georgieva also expressed concern that sweeping economic sanctions on Russia could spill over to neighboring countries in central Asia, particularly those with economic ties to Moscow.

“So, it is in the interest of everyone that a solution is found, and while it seems very difficult now to charter the pathway to this solution, we must always persevere for the sake of people whose lives are now so dramatically impacted,” she said.

— Chloe Taylor

Australia announced Wednesday that it was taking “immediate action” to sanction Russia over its activity in Ukraine.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a statement that the government would impose travel bans and targeted sanctions on eight members of Russia’s Security Council.

They said the Russian Security Council “bears responsibility for the current phase of the invasion by providing policy advice and justification to President Putin’s unilateral declaration recognising the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic.”

Australian individuals and businesses would no longer be able to do business with five banks — Rossiya Bank, Promsvyazbank, IS Bank, Genbank and the Black Sea Bank for Development and Reconstruction — and Australians would be prohibited from investing in Russian state development bank VEB.

Morrison and Payne said these moves were just the first phase of Australian sanctions on Russia, as the government remained “deeply concerned that Russia is escalating its aggression.”

— Chloe Taylor

Japan has hit Russia with sanctions over its recognition of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine and the deployment of Russian troops to Ukrainian territory.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Wednesday that his government would ban imports and exports to the two breakaway regions and prohibit the issuance and trading of new Russian sovereign bonds in Japan, local news agency Kyodo News reported.

Japan would also suspend visa issuance to individuals from the two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, according to Kyodo News.

— Chloe Taylor