Ukraine Declares State Of Emergency As EU Set To Unveil Sanctions On Russia

Ukraine said on Wednesday that it would introduce a state of emergency across the country, apart from the separatist regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, and called on its citizens to immediately leave Russia, as fears continued that all-out war was imminent.

The country’s parliament also backed a law to allow its citizens to carry firearms. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has also called up reservists to the army in the face of increasing risk of a full-blown Russian assault. Mr Zelensky also desperately called for “clear security guarantees” from Moscow.

“I have many times suggested that the President of Russia sit down at the negotiating table and speak,” he said.

Kiev also announced sanctions against 351 Russians, including MPs who supported recognising the independence of the two separatist-controlled territories in eastern Ukraine. The sanctions impose restrictions including barring people from entering Ukraine, and preventing their access to assets, capital, and property.

The moves came as the diplomatic window to avoid all-out conflict appeared almost closed as Europe, and potentially the world, faces its worst security security crisis in years.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the General Assembly on Wednesday that if the conflict in Ukraine worsened, “the world could see a scale and severity of need unseen for many years.”

The crisis which has simmered for weeks took an apparent turn for the worse on Monday when President Putin recognised two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, Donetsk and the neighbouring self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic. The move prompted a backlash and seemed to undermine diplomatic attempts to resolve the crisis.

With a growing prognosis that it could end in war, the European Union was set to announce a stringent set of sanctions targeting Russian MPs and Moscow’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu. Also expected to be on the list was a St Petersburg troll factory. An announcement was expected later on Wednesday.

The sanctions are expected to target several members of President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

The EU has been joined by Japan, the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada in announcing plans to target Russian banks and elites, while Germany has halted a major gas pipeline project from Russia.

The Czech Republic also called for tighter rules governing tighter rules for Russians seeking EU passports.

Kiev though urged the international community to go further.

“First decisive steps were taken yesterday, and we are grateful for them,” Ukraine foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a tweet. “Now the pressure needs to step up to stop Putin. Hit his economy and cronies. Hit more. Hit hard. Hit now.”

The UK prime minister Boris Johnson faced criticism from all sides for not going far enough when he announced his clutch of measures – sanctions on five Russian banks and three individuals on Tuesday.

The three Russian oligarchs have been on the US sanctions list since 2018 and the five sanctioned Russian banks — Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank — do not include the state-backed big two, Sberbank and VTB.

Opposition leader Kier Starmer urged Mr Johnson to “end the era of oligarch impunity”. On Wednesday, UK culture secretary wrote to Ofcom asking whether or not Russian TV station RT should be allowed to broadcast “harmful disinformation” in Britain.

In an apparent gaffe, British defence secretary Ben Wallace was recorded saying that President Putin had gone “full tonto” and evoked the nineteenth century Crimean War, claiming Britain had “kicked the backside” of Russia and “can always do it again”.

Meanwhile, China has rejected the use of sanctions, not recognising it as a way to solve problems, its foreign ministry said on Wednesday, when asked if the Asian nation would join Western countries in admonishing Russia over Ukraine.

Beijing also attacked Washington for creating “fear and panic and even playing up the threat of war” over the crisis.

Other countries though pointed the finger at Moscow. Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne called it an “obscene perversion” for President Putin to speak of Russian soldiers acting as peacekeepers in Ukraine.

“Any suggestions that there is a legitimate basis for Russia’s actions are pure propaganda and disinformation,” she told reporters during a visit to Prague. She said the country would not hesitate to impose further sanctions if Russia escalates the situation.

Meanwhile, President Tayyip Erdogan told Mr Putin that Turkey did not recognise steps against Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

Putin’s recognition has prompted a backlash and sanctions from Western countries. NATO member Turkey, which borders Ukraine and Russia in the Black Sea, has good ties with both and opposes sanctions on principle. It has offered to mediate the crisis and warned against military conflict.

The pope has also called for countries to show restraint.

Pope Francis on Wednesday said the threat of war in Ukraine had caused “great pain in my heart”, and urged politicians to make a serious examination of conscience before God about their actions.

On the ground in Ukraine, the Russian-backed leader of the breakaway Donetsk region said he wanted to peacefully settle its borders with Ukraine but reserved the right to ask “big Russia” for help.

Denis Pushilin, who heads the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said he favoured dialogue with Ukraine. But he told a news conference the situation in their long-running conflict had become critical and the separatists had accelerated a mobilisation of forces, in which healthy men between 18 and 55 have been called up to fight.

“We will win. With people like this, we will win. With such a country, with big Russia, which we respect and value,” he said. “We have no right to lose, or even to doubt in our victory.”