Ukraine okays plan to declare national emergency, mobilise reserve troops

In a major development amid the ongoing crisis, Ukraine security council on Wednesday approved the plan to declare a state of national emergency, according to news agency AFP.
The state of emergency would last 30 days and can be extended for another 30 days.

Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued an order to mobilise reservists amid heightened Ukraine-Russia tensions after Russia instructed its forces to prepare to control rebel-held territories in the country's east. According to the new instruction, reservists between the ages of 18 and 60 will be called up beginning today and must serve for a year.

Ukraine's reserve force of over 200,000 people is largely made up of military soldiers who fought during the country's eight-year conflict with Russian-backed rebels.

The decision to mobilise reservists came after Russia's upper house, the Federation Council, unanimously approved President Vladimir Putin's deployment of "peacekeepers" to two breakaway Ukrainian regions now recognised as autonomous by Moscow and perhaps other parts of Ukraine.

According to President Putin, Russia is open to dialogue but will always prioritise its own national security interests and will continue to enhance its military.

President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that the United States was implementing the first tranche of penalties against Russia for initiating an invasion of Ukraine and that more would be imposed if future incursions occurred. Biden told reporters at the White House that the US will penalise two significant Russian financial organisations and Russian national debt. According to government officials, sanctions have been levied on Russian elites as well as their family members.

The US used its most powerful sanctions weapon, placing Russian leaders and two banks on the Specially Designated Nationals list, essentially throwing them out of the US financial system, prohibiting them from trading with Americans, and freezing their assets in the US.

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• Russia
• Russia Ukraine Crisis
• Ukraine
• Ukraine crisis
• Vladimir Putin
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy
• national emergency