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Russia’s actions on Monday “are the beginning of the latest Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Tuesday.
“They are utterly unprovoked and unjustified,” Sherman said of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recognition of the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and its deployment of “peacekeeping” forces to the region.
“Moscow calls these troops ‘peacekeepers,’ but we all know this is a lie,” Sherman said in remarks delivered virtually to the OSCE Permanent Council.
Sherman’s language – and that of Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer – acknowledging the moves as an invasion are a shift from the inconclusive language used by a senior administration official on Monday.
That official refused to say whether they considered the actions a further invasion, despite being repeatedly pressed by reporters during a call, and emphasized that Russian forces had already been operating in those regions.
Sherman said that “in the coming hours, the United States will announce significant additional sanctions and other measures that will impose severe costs and consequences on the Russian Federation.”
“We expect our allies and partners will take additional, coordinated steps as well to respond to Russia’s unprovoked and unacceptable aggression against Ukraine,” she said.
Sherman said the Russian President “is testing our international system, he is testing our resolve. He wants to demonstrate that through force, he can make a farce of the international order.”
“In this moment, no one, not one of us, can stand on the sidelines. We must remain united in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity—and, indeed, of the right of all sovereign nations to choose their own paths, free from the threat of coercion, subversion, or invasion,” she said.
“The United States continues to believe that the diplomatic path is the only way for responsible nations — for great powers — to resolve their legitimate differences. That path is still available to Russia. It is still available to us all. But we can only make progress in the context of de-escalation, not invasion. Of peace, not war,” Sherman said.