This has been CNBC’s live blog tracking Thursday’s developments in the crisis involving Ukraine and Russia.
The Ukraine-Russia crisis is at a pivotal moment. Ukraine accused pro-Russian separatists of attacking a village near the border. In the U.S., meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking at the United Nations, made an urgent appeal against an invasion.
For months, the U.S. and its Western allies have watched a steady buildup of Kremlin forces along Ukraine’s border with Russia and Belarus. The increased military presence mimics Russia’s playbook ahead of its 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea, a peninsula on the Black Sea, which sparked international uproar and triggered sanctions against Moscow.
President Joe Biden has warned Russian leader Vladimir Putin of extraordinary and crippling economic sanctions if the Kremlin proceeds with an attack on Ukraine, Russia’s ex-Soviet neighbor.
Here are some key news items:
‘I am here today not to start a war but to prevent one,’ Blinken says
The White House said Thursday that U.S. officials traveled to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the past week in order to discuss potential energy market pressures stemming from a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.
State Department Special Envoy for Energy Affairs Amos Hochstein and Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk both met with Saudi officials, according to National...
Pakistani actress and model Ayesha Omar has strongly denied a controversial statement falsely attributed to her on social media. In recent days, a statement circulated online claiming that the act...