The United States is set to issue sanctions directed at Russia following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that Russia will regard two areas in Ukraine’s Donbas region as independent, and his subsequent signing of a decree that authorized Russian troops to be sent into the area for so-called “peacekeeping operations.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a presidential address to the nation criticized Russia’s recognition of the pro-Russian separatist-held Luhansk and Donetsk regions, saying that Russia’s actions violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
