Russian President Vladimir Putin authorised a military operation in eastern Ukraine on Thursday in what appeared to be the start of the war in Europe over Russia’s demands for an end to NATO’s eastward expansion.
In response, President Joe Biden said the US and its allies will respond in a united and decisive way to “an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces” on Ukraine and vows ‘severe sanctions’ on Russia.
We are covering the Ukraine crisis live, follow updates here:
12:38pm: Work of Russian ports in the Black Sea continues as usual – source
Operations at Russia’s Black Sea ports are continuing as usual, a source at Russia’s transport ministry told Reuters on Thursday.
12:20pm: 40 US troops arrive in Latvia, with more to come
Some forty U.S. service members arrived in Latvia from Italy early on Thursday, the first group of what is expected to be a deployment of more than 300 troops, the Latvian Defense Ministry said.
The troops, which will be based at Adazi military base just outside the Latvian capital Riga, arrived around midnight local time, before hostilities began in Ukraine, it added.
