A state of emergency has been declared in Ukraine on 23 February, with the country summoning home Ukrainian citizens who are in Russia.
An evacuation of their Kyiv embassy has also begun, as fear of a Russian invasion heightens.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier ordered the deployment of the Russian military to act as “peacekeepers” in eastern Ukraine.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that “Prediction what might be the next step of Russia, the separatists or the personal decisions of the Russian president – I cannot say.”
President of the United States Joe Biden said that he has directed his administration to impost sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Kyiv (in Ukraine) has also announced compulsory military service for all of their men of fighting age, as Moscow denies an invasion is being planned.
However, their trooped are still being deployed along the borders of Ukraine with no signs of them being withdrawn.
Flags were taken down from the embassy in Kyiv on Wednesday, with diplomats being ordered to evacuate.
So far, about 1 soldier has been killed and about 6 wounded as pro-Russian separatists used heavily artillery, mortar bombs and etc to increase shelling in the two breakaway regions over the last 24 hours.
Satellite images also showed fresh soldiers and equipment being deployed in the west of Russia, with more than 100 military vehicles stationed at an airfield near the border of Ukraine.
Images source: president.gov.ua and Vyacheslav Argenberg via Wikipedia Commons