'We've Cut Off Western Financing': Biden Condemns Putin's Invasion of Ukraine as Crisis Spikes US Gas Prices

The Biden administration calls Vladimir Putin's move into parts of eastern Ukraine the beginning of an invasion and is responding with harsh sanctions against Russian banks, lawmakers, and businessmen.

"He bizarrely asserted that these regions are no longer part of Ukraine and their sovereign territory," President Biden said Tuesday. "To put it simply, Russia just announced that it is carving out a big chunk of Ukraine."

CBN's George Thomas is in the region and reports that those provinces are seeing a heavy uptick in fighting. 

"Now that Russia has rolled its tanks into parts of Donbas region, attacks against Ukrainian positions have been spiking," explained Thomas. "Since Monday's invasion, there have been more than 5,000 ceasefire violations, the overwhelming majority of them committed by Russian forces. Meanwhile, Ukraine's President Zelenskyy is calling up some 250,000 reservists as new satellite images show Moscow deploying more troops to Belarus and western Russia."

Russian lawmakers approved Putin's request to use military force outside of Russia. 

In response, the U.S. is imposing punishing sanctions on Russian banks, business elites and their families.  
  
"We've cut off Russia's government from western financing," President Biden said. "It can no longer raise money from the West."

During a recent appearance on the Jay Sekulow show, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) explained what the sanctions mean for the Kremlin. 

"Russia has a smaller GDP - Gross Domestic Product - than the state of Texas has," said Lankford. "They're basically a gas station that's selling oil and natural gas to Europe and to Asia and whoever wants to buy it. If we cut that off, Russia's economy collapses, and Putin faces real consequences."

The European Union is also imposing sanctions with Germany freezing a major new Russian natural gas pipeline known as Nord Stream 2.

An additional 800 U.S. troops, along with fighter jets and helicopters are being repositioned to support NATO members in the Baltic states.
  
The sanctions are expected to have an impact here at home. Gas prices are already up 20 percent over last month and if Russia's spigot is turned off those prices could go even higher.