The Ukrainian government moved to implement a state of emergency following Russia’s incursion, and it’s expected to be approved by the Parliament within days.

The country’s National Security and Defense Council announced on Wednesday that the proposed declaration would last for 30 days and could be extended for another 30 days if deemed necessary.

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said the order, if implemented, would include “strengthening public order and security at critical infrastructure facilities,” while there “may be stronger or milder measures to ensure the security of our country.”

RUSSIA FORMALLY RECOGNIZES TWO SEPARATIST REGIONS IN EASTERN UKRAINE, PAVING WAY FOR INVASION

The decision comes a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he doesn’t expect an “all-out war against Ukraine” but warned he still could put his country “on a war footing” if there’s “broad escalation” from Russia.

Ukrainian leaders have also urged their citizens in Russia to leave immediately and have started calling up military reservists.

Russian President Vladimir Putin officially recognized on Monday two occupied regions — the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic — as independent from Ukraine, and he ordered troops to go into those regions, both of which were considered significant escalations in the conflict.

The White House and other Western allies have unleashed an array of sanctions on Russia, though the Biden administration noted that these penalties are not the ones previously warned of in the case of a full-scale Russian invasion.

“This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Biden said in a speech on Tuesday, in which he announced sanctions and the troop movements. “If Russia goes further with this invasion, we stand prepared to go further with sanctions.”

Biden issued an executive order in response that prevents new investments in the regions, stops the importation and exportation of goods into the United States, directly or indirectly, and provides the authority to impose sanctions on specific individuals, according to a White House fact sheet. During his remarks, Biden said the U.S. would sanction Russian elites and their families, financial institutions, state development corporation VEB, and Russia’s military bank.

The Pentagon, on Tuesday, announced a series of posture changes within Europe, moving more personnel and support to Eastern European allies.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pulled roughly 800 members of an infantry battalion task force from Europe to the Baltics, while the U.S. is also moving up to eight F-35 strike fighters from Germany to several locations along NATO’s eastern flank, along with 20-AH helicopters and 12 AH-64 helicopters that will be moved from Germany to the Baltic region and from Greece to Poland, respectively.

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The president previously deployed roughly 6,000 troops to Eastern European allies, though they will not enter Ukraine to fight Russia. They might, however, help Americans fleeing Ukraine, who have been instructed to leave already, once they get to a neighboring country.

An additional 8,500 troops were put on “heightened alert” for a possible deployment should NATO call up forces. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Tuesday that the “NATO Response Force has been put on higher readiness. We did that several weeks ago. But it has not been deployed.”

Original Location: Ukraine moves to call state of emergency, urges citizens in Russia to leave

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