>> anna coren in hong kong. just ahead on "cnn newsroom." we have gotten indication over indication that that door to diplomacy is closing and closing. >> this is nonsense. >> it's a very ill omen. a very dark sign. >> the latest escalation from russia's vladimir putin has the world on edge. we'll have the global reaction over the ukraine crisis. and millions of americans are in the path of a massive winter storm. it's already bringing arctic conditions across the midwest and central u.s. we'll have a live forecast. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. and we begin, of course, in ukraine where the prospect of war appears closer than ever as the world waits for vladimir

putin's next move. the russian president has ordered troops into separatist areas of eastern ukraine after he formally recognized their independence and the u.s. and other allies are expecting to respond with new sanctions on russia in the hours ahead. the move also prompted an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council and a chorus of outrage from the west. the kremlin, however, says the troops are going as, quote, peace keepers but the u.s. and its allies are not buying that. with the american ambassador to the u.n. calling the claims nonsense. >> in essence putin wants the world to travel back in time to a time before the united nations, to a time when empires ruled the world but the rest of the world has moved forward. it is not 1919. it is 2022. we and our partners have been clear that there will be a swift and severe response for russia

to further invade ukraine. >> now this video shows military moving through donyesk. it is unclear who that equipment belongs to. you can probably guess. although it is not known if russia's moves are a prelude to a full scale invasion, mr. putin casts doubt on ukraine's very state. >> translator: it is essential to understand that ukraine has never had a tradition for genuine statehood. since 1991 it has taken the path of mechanically copying foreign models, torn off from history and ukrainian realities. political and state institutions were constantly reshaped to reform the clans that had nothing to do with the interests of the ukrainian people. >> u.s. officials say russia's actions are a sign moscow is

seeking war not diplomacy. cnn's oren lieberman explains why. >> reporter: it appears he is setting up a cause for war. you don't need 190,000 troops including the separatist forces to declare the independence of your recognition of these regions. you're only looking at those numbers if you're going well beyond that. lloyd austin saying he thinks it's highly likely tanks are rolling through kyiv . >> meanwhile, people were celebrating putin's move but in ukraine's capitol, kyiv, the president, he was unwilling to bend to moscow's threats. >> translator: we are dedicated to the peaceful diplomatic solution and we will follow this

and only this path. we are on our land. we are not afraid of anybody and anything. we owe nothing to anybody and we will not give anything to anyone and we are confident about it. >> cnn has reporters all across the globe covering multiple angles through this story. arlitt saenz is in washington. scott mcclain in brussels with european reaction. sam kiley in eastern ukraine and jim sciutto will be joining me here in laviv also. kristie lu stout in hong kong monitoring the impact on oil prices and markets. let's head to sam kiley and arlitt saenz in washington. bring us up to date on washington's position and potential actions. >> reporter: well, michael, the white house remains on high alert as they are waiting to see what russian president vladimir

putin's next moves will be. overnight there was the emergency meeting of the u.n. security council where the u.s. and the others were very forceful of the denunciations of the actions. they're saying the russian president's recognition of the two pro moscow regions in eastern ukraine as a dependent, he is essentially trying to set up a pretexts for a further invasion of ukraine. now after putin made that recognition and after he ordered those troops into those russian separatist backed regions, the u.s. president biden signed an executive order implementing very limited sanctions specifically targeted to those regions. those sanctions essentially would prohibit u.s. trade and investment in those regions. this is all separate from the wider sweeping package of

sanctions the u.s. has promised to implement along with allies should russia move forward with a further invasion of ukraine. they've been readying that sanctions package for weeks, for months really now promising that it would be severe and the most punishing sanctions that putin has seen to date but take a listen to what deputy national security adviser john finer had to say about other potential measures the u.s. could be implementing in the coming days. >> we've also said we plan to take additional actions tomorrow in terms of what is actually happening on the ground in the donbas region of ukraine, we have seen reports but we are basing our actions on what russia actually does, not the statements russia makes. we're going to continue to assess overnight and we'll be prepared with a significant response tomorrow. >> so the u.s. watching very closely what exactly putin is giving orders to his military to

do. now one thing that is notable is that the white house so far has declined to say whether troops, those so-called peacekeeping troops heading into the donbas region, whether that would constitute and tee fine a further invasion into ukraine. that language is what is believed to trigger those larger sanctions from going into effect. so far the white house has not said what is happening right now on the ground, if that does constitute a further invasion. we'll wait to see if we get a further update as measures are expected to be implemented at some point later today. >> in this situation words do matter. sam kiley and what's your read on this? any reaction from ukrainians? >> reporter: the ukrainians have stuck to their line as you say in their intro.

president zelenskyy saying there has to be a solution to this. this really goes to the crux of the issue and elit's why it has been possible for the russian state to salami slice parts. they've sliced off and annexed the crimea peninsula. that is now part of russia. they have unilaterally decided that these two so-called break away republics have been declared independent and recognized by the kremlin allowing what is by any thought an invasion into sovereign territory. they're fiddling around because they are still being synonymous

in their response. they were not allowed to get ahold of lethal military aid to defend itself during a year period of war which is ongoing and expanding. the real question for ukraine, to what extent is this the limit of ukraine apes watch. is this, for example, the changed belief and having additional targets and therefore at what point will the international community actually acknowledge that russian tanks across the ukrainian border. it is absolutely extraordinary from the ukrainian border. we will hear loud comments as this sinks into ukrainians. the united states is pussy

footing around the definitions which are frankly absurd from the perspective here. >> yeah, indeed. define invasion. one manage it's foreign boots crossing on to a sovereign nation's territory. sam kiley, appreciate it. thanks so much. let's bring in ukrainian political analyst ta tara zaragrovicz. your read on this? when is an invasion an invasion? >> yes, good morning, michael, thanks for having me. the most important from yesterday is mr. putin is he is declaring new republics. in terms of putin's aggression

it means two basic scenarios. the best is that mr. putin will be satisfied recognizing independence of so-called people's republics. meanwhile, as putin troops already moved. with ukrainian arms forces and second worst case scenario means vladimir put continue and russian forces will try to work on the borders of the republics and that they should be enlarged. effectively meaning that russian forces and separatist backed forces should attack the ukrainian army. anyway, vladimir putin

recognized this. what do i mean by that, michael? i mean that his idea, his goal was to persuade ukraine to accept donetsk and luhansk as republics of ukraine. vladimir putin now recognized t this. >> i'm curious, in the short to medium term, let's just say the short term, do you think he's going to stay put? or do you think as sam kiley was saying, he is going to slice off more and more little by little when the world is not paying as much attention a few months from now? >> absolutely. absolutely, michael.

he will be looking at the u.s. and what happened in europe. he doesn't see anyone in the world apart from the united states. he doesn't hear what the european countries are thinking. if he thinks sanctions would be insufficient, yesterday president biden decided to have sanctions against the dnr and lnr, still no sanctions against russia and russian economy. if he sees these as inefficient, he will be trying to get as many pieces as possible. from this perspective they have a good position to attack the ukrainian country.

>> yeah, mariupol a very key city and strategic city in the spotlight. >> we're out of time. i wanted to ask you about the optics. it was striking how subservient everyone there looked. they were meek. they certainly weren't challenging the leader. is there anyone in the kremlin, moscow, who would speak truth to putin? who would dare to say, this is not a good idea. >> you watch vladimir putin's behaviors and all the members of russia, the whole security council like first grade pupils in school. it was very funny. to me, there was a lot of scary things in vladimir putin's

speech there is opposition within the chrome lynn of mr. putin. i don't think so, really. i think everybody yesterday was playing his role and there were some pieces of intelly fwens. we have always accepted the territories as part of russia. no way i'm talking about this. this is what he's going to do. it would be annexation of crimea. >> always great to get your perspective. thanks for making the time.

let's go ahead and toss it back to anna coren in hong kong. i'll be back a bit later. anna. >> thanks, michael. appreciate it. still ahead, russia's latest move. live in hong kong with the latest. that's next. plus, millions of americans under some form of winter weather alert. snow, sleet, freezing rain from the northern plains to the great lakes. live report from cnn. and get back to your r rhyth. ♪ don't play around with cold and flu symptotoms.

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welcome back. the escalating tensions between moscow and ukraine is rattling markets. we're seeing the swift reaction among stock futures. now on european markets. oil and natural gas prices are also on the rise. russia is of course the world's top oil and natural gas exporters. cnn's kristie lu stout joins us now live from hong kong. tell us how are global markets reacting to what many believe is an imminent russian invasion in ukraine? >> anna, global stocks are stumbling on the news russian president vladimir putin has

ordered his troops to enter a pro moscow separatist region. in europe, markets have fallen sharply since the open. bring up the latest data for you. if you look at that, you will see a sea of red. ftse 100 down. xetra dax losing .6. pair race cac carant down. meanwhile, here in asia we're nearing the end of a trading day. the nikkei lost 1.7%. seoul does pi, 1.35%. the hang seng down about 2.7%. i should also add concerns with additional restrictions from the tech sector have always wayed on the markets, u.s. futures and they all indicate a lower open. monday, presidents' day holiday.

as you can see there, dow futures losing 1.4%. s&p 500 down 2%. a statement, u.s. president joe biden plans to impose sanctions on the pro moscow separatist regions in eastern ukraine. that has helped to bring the price of crude oil up higher. nearly so much volatility. there's so much uncertainty out there in regards to ukraine and beyond. it does not bode well for global markets. we have a couple of things we want to share with you that provides context. craig very verland says, it feels that this situation can explode at any moment. may well be on the brink of something terrible happening. that's continuing to feed into the negativity of the markets. we heard from damian mccullough

and he offers this quote, i do think it's as much of a short squeeze. today's move is clearly an he is ka tlairgs shows this will be for gold, treasury bonds as investors scramble to find the safe haven. >> many thanks. nearly 25 million people across the u.s. are under some sort of winter storm alert. it's already causing major issues. this was the scene in oregon on monday. around 100 vehicles have been involved in crashes on interstate 84 according to the oregon state police. the storm bringing not just ice, snow, sleet and arctic like winds, also tornadoes. for the latest forecast we're now joined by meteorologist karen mcginnis. good to see you. many folks bracing for the polar

plunge. >> reporter: anna, we thought we could get through most of the winter without a significant event like this, but this one has such deep impact all across the united states with rare captions. most of the country seeing blizzard conditions, threat of tornadoes, heavy snowfall, gusty winds. it is phenomenal to see a system quite this large this late in the season. here's that weather system i was talking about. it separates a very entrenched arctic air from the milder weather ahead of it. what is so strange and unusual is to see a place like dallas, texas, this time of year reporting 85 degrees. that's not normal. guess what happened? here's that frontal system. this is a future cast on the radar. thunderstorms up across the tennessee valley, ohio river valley. probably will see perhaps a couple of tornadoes, hail, high

winds. then look what develops across the dallas. dallas is looking at ice coming up over the next couple of days. it also spreads into oklahoma city. the further north you go, the colder it becomes. so desperately cold. wind chill factors minus 50 degrees or so. that is just almost unbearable. take a look at what happened near fargo. this is just to the west of fargo, north dakota, along interstate 95. first responders here, they were trying to extract people from the vehicles that collided on interstate 94. it was miserable. the visibility was very poor. less than a quarter of a mile. the wind chill factor, well the wind chill is minus 32. out ahead of the front, some places in the southeast looking at temperatures very mild for

this time of year. behind it, much colder air. that arctic plunge. we didn't really expect to see it stay quite this expansive. here we are. also seeing the impacts of southern california. ukraine is projecting calm and confidence as russia orders troops into separatist regions and extends its drills. we'll have the latest condemnation from kyiv. plus, we look at what an invasion into ukraine would look like and the vast fire power in russia's arsenal. new mucinex instasoooothe. works in seconds, lasts for hours.

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moscow and this is cnn. welcome back to "cnn newsroom," everyone. i'm michael holmes in western ukraine. we are following the outrage over russia's provocative moves that have escalated the crisis in eastern ukraine and brought it to the precipice of war. russian troops could enter the separatist enclaves and may already be there. russian media is airing video of the military convoy in donyetsk. ukraine's president addressed the nation earlier suggesting, quote, we will not liking. boris johnson chairing a meeting of the emergency cobra committee

earlier and has called russia's actions a very ill omen and dark side. sanctions appear to be a given. how strong those sanctions are remains to be seen, however. the european union on the verge, too, of slapping sanctions on russia. again, what kind has yet to be determined. members will discuss that in the coming hours. he stopped short of calling this an invasion but he said russian troops are ukrainian soil. semantics perhaps. the recognition of the two separatist territories is a blatant violation of war. the e.u. and its partners will react with unanimity and

swiftness. let's bring in scott daniels. the key question is what kind of sanctions and what constitutes an invasion? >> reporter: you're right, michael. that is certainly the key question here amongst e.u. ministers discussing the sanctions today. we know the e.u.'s top diplomat had said yesterday before vladimir putin had made this announcement of recognizing the two break away regions in eastern ukraine, if putin went ahead and did that, he would put sanctions on the table and let european ministers decide what to do. that is precisely the situation we find ourselves in right now. foreign ministers were here in brussels. most of them left to go to paris for a separate conference focusing on indoe pacific. that is an extraordinary meetings council meaning all of the for ministers will talk to

decide what to do about statements. there has been plenty of condemnation and they will have to find a universal consensus. ireland, latvia are calling for sanctions point blank. france is calling for targeted sanctions. germany and france will convenient with their partners. remember, sanctions had been agreed upon. they would have cut him off on the north haes pipeline. now those sanctions were reserved -- those sanctions had been reserved for the event of an invasion, a russian invasion of ukraine. what is it we're seeing right now? there are russian troops on the ground in ukraine. russia says this is a

peacekeeping mission. joseph burrell was asked whether he believes this is the beginning of an invasion. here's what he said. >> translator: well, the russian troops entered donbsa. we can see donbas is part of ukraine. certainly when they enter into the vast area. >> reporter: so burrell was also asked whether he could get into detail about what sanctions are being discussed. he said, no. the question here is will these be torgted investigation and deciding this is, in fact, an invasion. that's the question yet to be answered. >> words are ufrg. thanks so much.

>> so what would a russian investigation mean? a new decree gives them the right to build military bases. that violates international war. cnn's tom foreman looks at how the russian military could use the superior fire power. >> reporter: ukraine is only about the size of texas so why would russia need so much force to go after the small area down here? why would they have filled the region with so many different troops? military experts who have looked at this say they believe it's because they want to have overwhelming power to support this peacekeeping mission in maybe to carry it along through. what kind of power are we talking about? the pull back bomber capable of getting to ukrainian air face. there are 36 of these.

ukraine has 310 miles. that's almost half the distance across the country. again, without even crossing the border if they want to. they would have the tanks that they normally see. troops. artillery. beyond that they might have a very active role to be played out here, black sea fleet and troops moving into the area. in the end, one of the concerns that military strategists have for the west is that if they move into the area, they will not see they're putting peacekeeping troops, they might say let's carve out a land bridge to crimea and because of the danger, why don't we go further out here and saying we're keeping everyone apart and then maybe beyond that the concern is what if they say we're going to push all the way up to the nigre river and say all of this is for russia?

by the way, if the ukraine army is in here resisting this, there's a real fear what russia might try to do is sweep in behind them and iso lace them and come up with a very, very diminished remain dare with ukraine. joining me now is jim sciutto. great to have you on set. let's talk semantics. the idea is the invasion is when a foreign army steps on the soil of an independent sovereign nation. isn't that what's about to happen? >> the bade den administration's response left some wiggle room on that. they said, yes, there will be a response to this. this is in violation of international law. at the same time they noted russian troops have been in these areas prior and for some number of years, which seems to give them the opening to say how much of this is a qualitative

change? do they declare this the further invasion that had been set from the u.s. and they are saying there will be more sanctions and responses. but it raises a question. >> is this the further invasion? it has not been answered dean interesting angle. a lot of people, it's enstierlly that isis would expand their caliber in that way. could put be doing something like this? as sam kiley put it to us, salami slices? >> it's death by 1,000 cuts or destabilization by 1,000 cuts. many of those cuts, as you well

know, have been administered. the true answer is, we don't know, right? the fact of the mare matter is ranging from what he has done so favre u.s. believes we will swiftly enter that tore interest ri. the latest i will telly gent those they are moving for air transport for battalions. the force that's already arranged will be ordered to go in. they maintain that are capability to send it in. putin could keep the pressure on without acting and tension. >> i wanted to ask you this,

too. to provoke an incase, separatists. ukrainian military, it is an uks cues. we've seen that and seeing russia's attempts. they've done some reporting where you can see we need to watch for that. those forces are very tight and forces in close proximity sometimes shoot at each other and sometimes kill each other, sometimes make mistakes. >> yeah. now there are russians to respond. >> yeah. >> great to have you here. >> nice to be here. >> joining us with great analysis. all right. now i'm michael holmes in ukraine. we'll have more ahead on the russia/ukraine crisis coming up in 20 minutes. anna coren will be back with

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the think the d.o.j. present the case well. the anniversary date is the 23rd. hopefully we'll have a good verdict by the 23rd.

>> travis mick michael and his father are charged with interference and a hate crime and attempted kidnapping. they face a weapons charge. convictions in this trial could bring steep fines and add on more life sentences. >> we the jury find the defendant travis mick michael guilty. >> all three men sentenced to live in prison for the felony murder of arbery. only bryan is allowed for probation. >> ahmaud had been chased down for five minutes. >> during closing words they said arbery's murder was about racism. men hunted him like animals. >> they killed ahmaud simply because ahmaud was black and what we heard over the last two days, these guys were racists. >> aren't too much to say that he was killed racially.

>> the defense disagreed say the bid did not belong to any hate groops. during this trial there were 20 witnesses. the defense only called one witness to talk about the georgia neighborhoods where the men lived, where arbery was killed. she had never met the mcmichaels and bryan. no cams ras allowed inside the courtroom. the prosecution hammering home the idea that even though when he was shot and struggling, they didn't provide any assistance as he was laying on the ground

dying. we are now bringing you a tweet from the ukrainian province, i believe. he's meeting with the estonia prisoners. he said, arrived in kyiv. next up meeting with estonian prime minister there, president, i should say. we stand united. buy will not walkway. we have seen much more. stay with us. air wick essential mist. connect to nature.

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we will remove all remaining domestic restrictions. let us learn to live with this virus and continue protecting ourselves and others without restricting our freedoms. >> british prime minister boris johnson telling parliament it's time to get on living with covid-19. as part of that plan the united kingdom will offer an additional

booster vaccine dose to some of the most vulnerable. the prime minister outlined england's path forward with more restrictions to be lifted on thursday. however, mr. johnson made clear the pandemic is not over. cnn's anna stewart joins us from windsor, england. what's been the reaction that it is time for the country to learn to live with covid and end these restrictions? >> reporter: well, it's certainly no surprise. there are really two key points i think coming out of the living with covid plan. one is that come thursday in england, people who test positive for covid-19 won't legally be required to self isolate. and in april the mass testing ends.

people want to be able to make their own decisions. they're fed up with swabs up their noyess and their chilchildren a children's noses. there's huge concern. it could be very hard to identify and track new variants of concern moving forward. one of the biggest issues was the cost. it was around $2.7 billion. that was an incredibly expensive testing and contact tracing program we have. it feels like the u.k. is a bit of an outlier. it remains to be seen if some have to be reinstated. in terms of testing they could reintroduce testing but for now the wheels are off. anna?

>> and very quickly, any update on the queen's condition after she tested positive to covid-19? >> reporter: no news in terms of her health. no news is good news. i don't think we're going to get any running commentary on her health. she did send a message be of condolence to the president of brazil. hopefully no news is good news. >> anna stewart outside windsor castle. many thanks. canada's house of commons has approved passage of the emergency act. the law could remain in effect until mid march. the prime minister says he'll rescind it as soon as the act allows. it gives the government sweeping powers for blockades. colombia is the latest

country in latin america to partially decriminalize abortion. they ruled in favor of legalizing the procedure up until the 24th week of pregnancy. abortion at any time after remains a crime. the ruling is a watershed victory for the feminist movement. mexico supreme court and argentina senate have decriminalized abortion in the recent months. and michigan university has suspended its men's basketball coach for the rest of the season. it comes after juwan howard threw a punch at an opposing coach after a gallon on sunday. howard said he was upset the coach called the time-out late in the game when they had a large lead. he was also fined $14,000. and the man who's likely the world's most famous unvaccinated athlete just won his first match

of the year. world number one novak djokovic defeated lorenzo in round one of the dubai tennis championships, a tournament he has won five times. the soviet superstar was allowed to compete in dubai after being deported from australia last month. missing out on the chance to defend his australian open title. well, thanks so much for your company. i'm anna coren in hong kong. "early start" coming up next. you're watching cnn.

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good morning, everyone. it is tuesday, february 22nd. it is 5 a.m. here in new york. thanks so much for getting an "early start" with us. i'm laura jarrett. >> i'm christine romans. welcome here in the united states and around the world. breaking news out of eastern ukraine. senior officials tell cnn the latest u.s. intelligence suggests russian troops could roll into ukraine's donbastk region a