US President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced the first wave of sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine. The sanctions target Russian banks and sovereign debt sanctions among others things. According to a Reuters report, Japan too is ready to impose sanctions on Russia including prohibiting the issuance of Russian bonds in Japan and freezing the assets of certain Russian individuals, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday. Kishida said Russia’s actions had violated Ukraine’s sovereignty and called on Russia to return to diplomatic discussions, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, the Air India flight carrying around 242 passengers from Ukraine reached Delhi on Wednesday morning. Those on board were mostly students who were returning after the Indian embassy in Ukraine issued advisories asking them to leave Ukraine temporarily, 

Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered deployment of troops to two breakaway regions in Ukraine after recognising them as “independent” on Monday. The move accelerated the crisis in Ukraine which the West feared could lead to war.

Canada has joined other Western forces in making its stand clear on the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Anita Anand, Minister of National Defence, Canada, posted pics of the 'lethal aid' that is being sent to Ukraine. She said that the Russian action is 'completely unacceptable'

The United Nations chief says the world is facing “the biggest global peace and security crisis in recent years” and is calling Russia's declaration of the “so-called `independence'” of separatist areas in eastern Ukraine a violation of its territorial integrity and accusing Moscow of “the perversion of the concept of peacekeeping.” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Tuesday he is proud of the achievements of the UN's far-flung peacekeepers, but when troops of one country enter the territory of another country without its consent, as Russian forces have done, “they are not impartial peacekeepers — they are not peacekeepers at all” as Moscow has called them. (AP)

President Vladimir Putin has shifted the Ukraine crisis into a new, more dangerous phase with a barrage of words and actions that suggest his ultimate aims go far deeper than extending Russian sway over two struggling separatist regions. Putin signed friendship treaties on Monday night with the so-called Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics proclaimed by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, in a move denounced as illegal by the West and met with immediate sanctions, including on Russian banks and a major new gas pipeline. 

Western nations on Tuesday punished Russia with new sanctions for ordering troops into separatist regions of eastern Ukraine and threatened to go further if Moscow launched an all-out invasion of its neighbour. The United States, the European Union and Britain announced plans to target banks and elites while Germany halted a major gas pipeline project from Russia, which they say has amassed more than 150,000 troops near Ukraine's borders. Moscow has denied planning an invasion.