The U.N. Security Council is holding an emergency session today over ongoing tensions at the Russia-Ukraine border. Russia has massed some 100,000 troops near Ukraine but denies it plans to invade and continues to demand NATO commit to halting its eastward expansion. The U.S. Senate is expected to unveil a bill imposing possible new sanctions on Russia, including some that could take effect even before any possible invasion. The U.K. also threatened to impose new sanctions against Russia. On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Western “panic” over the situation was destabilizing Ukraine’s economy.
President Volodymyr Zelensky: “The politics have to be balanced. And the journalists, if they want to understand the situation, let them come to Kyiv. Are tanks driving here in our streets? No, but it feels like this if you’re reading the media. If you’re not here, then you feel like this.”
On Friday, President Biden told reporters he’ll soon move U.S. troops to NATO countries in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said members of its military alliance are offering training and equipment to Ukraine but that there are “no plans to deploy NATO combat troops to Ukraine.”