Putin announces military operation in Ukraine
Says aim is to demilitarise Ukraine
Calls on Ukrainian military to lay down weapons
WASHINGTON — President Biden on Tuesday announced sanctions aimed at punishing Russia for what he called “the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine,” joining European leaders in imposing economic consequences for blatant violations of national sovereignty.
Speaking from the East Room of the White House, Mr. Biden condemned President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for his aggression against Ukraine, saying that the Russian action is “a flagrant violation of international law and demands a firm response from the international community.”
The Pentagon is moving up to eight F-35 fighter jets and a slew of other warplanes to Eastern Europe, the Baltics and Poland to shore up support for NATO allies following what President Biden called the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
At the direction of the president, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III also ordered an infantry battalion task force — some 800 troops — to the Baltics, according to a senior Defense Department official. All of the troops and warplanes were already in the European theater, the official said.
On the same night that Russia announced it would soon evacuate all diplomatic staff members from Ukraine, social media videos verified by The Times’s Visual Investigations team showed men burning documents and loading boxes into cars at the Russian consulate in Odessa.
The videos, posted by two accounts on the messaging service Telegram and filmed sometime on Tuesday night, showed piles of documents and possibly other items on fire in a courtyard inside the walls of the consulate.
Other videos posted on Twitter by a freelance photojournalist, Ethan Swope, appeared to show flickering light from flames in the rear courtyard of the Russian embassy in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and smoke rising from the courtyard.
