President Joe Biden on Monday will sign an executive order to sanction any Americans who invest in the eastern Ukraine regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
The move comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees recognizing the two breakaway areas as independent, further inflaming tensions with the West amid fears of a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin said Putin also ordered Russian forces to "maintain peace" in eastern Ukraine, though it was not immediately clear if troops would enter Ukrainian territory.
Putin announced the decrees in an address to Russia, in which he rejected the idea of Ukrainian nationhood. He called it “madness” that the country had independence and incorrectly claiming that the country was only the product of power-brokering during the beginning of the Soviet Union.
“We have every reason to say it’s Bolsheviks and Vladimir Lenin that created Ukraine,” Putin declared, arguing that “modern Ukraine was completely created by Russia.”
US: Putin’s speech was designed to ‘justify war’
President Joe Biden’s administration accused Vladimir Putin of seeking to “justify a war” in his speech Monday before the Russian president recognized two separatist parts of eastern Ukraine as independent.
In an address on Russian state television, Putin made several false claims that seem “designed to excuse possible military action,” a Biden administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told reporters. “This was a speech to the Russian people to justify a war.”
Putin called it “madness” that Ukraine has independence during his hourlong speech, incorrectly claiming that the country was only the product of power-brokering during the beginning of the Soviet Union.
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