Washington, D.C, 24 February 2022, (TON): Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State has said that since Foreign Minister Kuleba and I were in Munich just a few days ago, Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine and its rejection of international law and diplomacy have accelerated.

Yesterday, President Putin recognized the so-called “independence” of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, where violent Russian-backed separatists have been fighting a war since 2014. 

A few hours later, he gave authorization to Russian troops to enter those regions.

For weeks, we’ve been warning the world that Russia was mobilizing for military aggression against Ukraine.  We’ve made clear that if Russia invaded, the United States and our allies and partners would impose swift and severe consequences.

Now that Russia has moved against Ukraine, so, too, have we moved on our strong and unified response.

This afternoon, the President announced the first round of sanctions on Russia in response to its actions.  These have been closely coordinated with our allies and partners. 

We’ll continue to escalate our sanctions if Russia escalates its aggression toward Ukraine.