NYT: Ukraine Live Updates: U.S. Prepares Response as Putin Orders Forces to Separatist Enclaves

With the dispatch of armed forces by Russia and the promise of sanctions by the United States, the Ukraine conflict entered a perilous new chapter on Tuesday as the path to a diplomatic solution quickly narrowed.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has been unsparing in terms of what lies ahead, calling Ukraine little more than a “puppet” of the United States, and Kyiv’s leaders solely responsible for whatever “bloodshed” may come next. Mr. Putin has also raised the specter of fighting after ordering troops to the two breakaway regions of Ukraine that Russia just recognized.

“As for those who captured and are holding on to power in Kyiv,” he said, referring to the Ukrainian capital, “we demand that they immediately cease military action.”

Ukraine’s leaders braced for the possibility of an intense fight to defend their territory, offering a somber message to troops on Tuesday. “Ahead will be a difficult trial,” the defense minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, said in a statement released by the military. “There will be losses. You will have to go through pain and overcome fear and despondency.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine continued to play down the threat of any Russian invasion, saying on Tuesday, “We believe that there will be no powerful war against Ukraine and there will be no wide escalation on the part of the Russian Federation.”

He added, however, “If it will, martial law will be imposed.”

White House officials have said that President Biden will impose economic sanctions on the separatist regions of Ukraine, and that a further Western response will be announced on Tuesday. By then, several of Mr. Biden’s aides said, they already expected to see Russian forces rolling over the border into Ukraine, crossing the line that Mr. Biden had set for imposing “swift and severe” sanctions on Moscow.

In recent weeks, some 150,000 to 190,000 Russian troops, by Western estimates, have gradually drawn a noose around their neighbor, and the United States has warned repeatedly that the question about a Russian invasion was not if but when.

Video clips of military convoys moving through the separatist territories were circulating on social media on Tuesday, but there was no immediate official confirmation that these were Russian troops rather than the forces of Russian-backed separatists.

On the Ukrainian side, similarly unconfirmed reports on social media appeared to show the Ukrainian Army moving heavy weaponry, such as self-propelled artillery guns and tanks, toward the front line with the separatist enclaves.

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Maps: Russia and Ukraine Edge Closer to War

Two breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine are at the center of the conflict after Russia recognized their independence.

The United States and its allies swiftly condemned Russia’s actions on Monday to recognize the separatist regions, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics created after Russia fomented a separatist war in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Twitter that “Russia’s move to recognize the ‘independence’ of so-called republics controlled by its own proxies is a predictable, shameful act.” He added that he had told Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, that the United States condemned the actions in the “strongest possible terms.”

At an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting late Monday, several nations rebuked Russia, saying that the move amounted to a violation of the United Nations Charter and an attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty. Although the meeting ended with no action taken, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the American ambassador to the United Nations, said that council members had “sent a unified message — that Russia should not start war.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Reznikov, Ukraine’s defense minister, reiterated the country’s posture, saying that the Kremlin had recognized not the two breakaway regions, but rather “its own aggression against” Ukraine.

“We are ready and able to defend ourselves and our sovereignty,” he said on Twitter. “World cannot be silent. Sanctions? Another brick in the wall? New Berlin Wall?”

— Anton Troianovski, Valerie Hopkins, Andrew E. Kramer and Michael Schwirtz

Two European officials say Russian troops entered eastern Ukraine.

Poland’s minister of defense and the European Union’s foreign policy chief said on Tuesday that Russian military forces had entered separatist regions of eastern Ukraine that were recognized as independent states by President Vladimir. V Putin of Russia a day earlier.

The officials stopped short of calling it an invasion. “Russian troops have entered into Donbas. We consider the Donbas part of Ukraine,” the E.U. official, Josep Borrell, said in Paris, referring to the eastern Ukraine region that includes the areas claimed by the Russia-backed separatists.

“I wouldn’t say it is a fully fledged invasion,” Mr. Borrell said, “but Russian troops are on Ukrainian soil.”

Overnight, footage of army convoys moving through the separatist territories circulated on social media, but it has been difficult to determine whether they were Russian forces. Russia has had military personnel in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, known as the Donbas, since 2014. The Polish minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, did not specify whether he was referring to new Russian units sent into the area.

Russia’s military presence in the two breakaway areas of Ukraine has waxed and waned since the spring of 2014, when Moscow sent in troops and military hardware to support pro-Russian gunmen who seized government buildings and declared the establishment of “people’s republics.”

In a statement on the defense ministry’s Twitter account, the Polish minister said: “We confirm that Russian forces have entered the territory of the self-proclaimed republics. Therefore, they violated the Ukrainian borders and international law has been violated. Such actions are unacceptable.”

Poland and three Baltic States to the north — all of which share borders with Russia or Belarus, and are members of both the E.U. and NATO — have been pushing the European bloc to immediately impose sanctions on Russia. But they have met resistance from governments that believe Russia’s recent actions do not yet constitute an invasion.

— Steven Erlanger and Andrew Higgins

Germany puts a stop to Nord Stream 2, a key Russian natural gas pipeline.<

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday that Germany would halt certification of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline that would link his country with Russia, one of the strongest moves yet by the West to punish the Kremlin for recognizing two separatist regions in Ukraine.

The German leader’s announcement came hours after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia ordered armed forces to the separatist regions, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.

Germany’s allies in Europe and the United States had been pressing Mr. Scholz for weeks to state publicly that the $11 billion pipeline, which was completed late last year and runs from Russia’s coast to northern Germany under the Baltic Sea, would be at risk of being blocked in the event of a Russian move against Ukraine.

“The situation today is fundamentally different,” Mr. Scholz told reporters in Berlin. “That is why we must re-evaluate this situation, in view of the latest developments. By the way, that includes Nord Stream 2.”

Ukraine’s government welcomed Germany’s decision. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called it “a morally, politically and practically correct step in the current circumstances.”

Since November, the amount of natural gas arriving in Germany from Russia has plunged, driving prices through the roof and draining reserves, leaving all of Europe in an energy crunch. The pipeline, which is owned by a subsidiary of Gazprom, Russia’s state-controlled energy behemoth, has been filled with natural gas but had not gone online, pending approval from a German regulator.

The pipeline had been certified by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government before she left office, the last step before the project was passed on to the regulator, who had said that the project might be approved as early as midyear.

But Tuesday’s announcement rescinds the previous government’s approval, and the project will now be re-examined under Mr. Scholz’s economy ministry, which is led by a member of the environmentalist Greens party. Since taking office, both Mr. Scholz and his minister have stressed the importance of diversifying Germany’s energy sources away from the heavy dependence on Russian natural gas.

Last year, Russian gas accounted for nearly 27 percent of the energy consumed in Germany, according to government figures, an increase that was expected to continue after the country shutters its last three nuclear power plants, scheduled in December, and works to phase out coal-burning power plants by 2030.

A full two-thirds of the gas Germany burned last year came from Russia.

— Melissa Eddy<
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How a Ukraine Conflict Could Reshape Europe’s Reliance on Russia

Europe needs Russian natural gas to help heat homes, generate electricity and power factories — a crucial factor in the diplomatic crisis.

In eastern Ukraine, some aren’t waiting around to see Putin’s next move.

SEVERODONETSK, Ukraine — As dawn broke on Tuesday in eastern Ukraine through an icy blue, overcast sky, Viktoria Gudyatskaya, 41, was boarding a train with her daughter, not waiting to learn how the Russian government’s recognition of two separatist regions, announced by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia the night before, might play out militarily.

“It felt like he took a decisive step,” said Ms. Gudyatskaya, who had intended to leave anyway because of an escalation in fighting in the east but saw Mr. Putin’s speech as a final argument for getting out with her daughter, Svetlana, who is 14.

Two other families, lugging suitcases, some with toddlers on hips, boarded the early-morning westbound train, saying they were escaping possible violence. Ms. Gudyatskaya said she would live with a brother in Kyiv “until the situation clears up.”

Mr. Putin’s speech left Ukrainians, and Western governments, guessing as to what might come next. In an address that was partly a history lesson, Mr. Putin asserted that Ukraine had been “created by Russia” and should be part of it today, suggesting a claim to the entire country.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, delivered a televised speech at 2 a.m. to urge calm, saying that the country would “keep a cool head” in the crisis. But he also said that it would not yield territory.

Ms. Gudyatskaya, who stood on the train platform in the chilly morning air a few hours later, with just one suitcase and unsure when she might return home, said she blamed Mr. Putin for her predicament.

“If they had another leader, they wouldn’t do this,” she said of the Russians. “The Russian people are fine.”

Already, the escalating fighting along the front line between Ukrainian government forces and the two enclaves, which began on Thursday, has grown close to her home in the town of Novoaidar. “We can hear it now through our closed windows,” she said of artillery shelling.

Svetlana, her daughter, who toted a backpack with rainbow-hued straps and said she wanted to become either a car mechanic or a nurse, said she wasn’t as worried as her mother.

“Everything is fine,” she said as she boarded the train. “Our guys will win. We will defeat Russia and Russia will fall apart.”

Ms. Gudyatskaya shook her head. “Faith is always good, Sveta,” she said. “But I am worried.”

— Andrew E. Kramer