Casualty figures are beginning to mount on the first day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Thursday despite new sanctions and threat of deterrence by the United States and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
Ukraine’s Health Minister, Oleh Lyashko, has said 57 people have been killed and 169 wounded in the attacks.
Separately, the deputy defence minister reported heavy Russian shelling was still underway in the eastern Donetsk region.
The US has condemned the attack on Ukraine saying it will stand up to bullies as President Joe Biden has said “this cannot go on unanswered.
“If it did, the consequences for America would be much worse. America stands up to the bullies. We stand up for freedom. This is who we are,” Biden said.
“Putin’s actions betray his sinister vision for the future of our world, one where nations take what they want by force.
The US said the new sanctions on Russia, which are being coordinated with European allies, would isolate the country from the global economy.
“This is going to – in the United States specifically – any assets that Russia currently holds in the United States, are now frozen,” Aljazeera reported.
In his speech from the White House US President Biden signaled to the American public that the US is closely monitoring the situation in order to assess whether or not to send its own troops.
“The President was very carefully making the argument to Americans that right now, while there are no boots on the ground of American soldiers in Ukraine, should this conflict spill over into neighbouring NATO countries, that would change.”
The US is sending 7,000 troops to Germany to help reassure NATO allies who are part of a larger contingent that had already been put on alert earlier this year, a senior US defense official has said.
The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the troops would be made up of an armored brigade combat team and would leave for Germany in the coming days.
Biden has said that Putin would cost Russia dearly and leave him as a pariah on the international stage. He also described it as a dangerous moment for Europe but said that freedom would prevail.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who condemned Putin, has said Western powers will deploy all available resources to ensure that the conflict in Ukraine does not spread to other countries in Europe.
“Putin should not underestimate the determination of NATO to defend all its members. This applies expressly to our NATO partners in the Baltic States, Poland and Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia. No ifs or buts,” Scholz said in a televised address to the nation.
He added that Putin alone bore the responsibility for the attack on Ukraine, but warned the Russian president he “would not win.”
“With the attack on Ukraine, President Putin wants to turn back time. But there is no going back to the 19th century, when great powers ruled over the heads of smaller states,” Scholz said.