trigger significant sanctions against moscow. this comes as russian lawmakers hours ago essentially gave putin carte blanche to use military force outside of russia, a move that could precede a broader attack on ukraine or beyond. he arranged troops into two different regions and claimed them to be independent states. a convoy including tanks and troop carriers were spotted near one of those regions. it is unclear whether they were ukrainian or russian deployments. putin himself spoke a short time ago announcing he was recognizing the 2014 borders of those breakaway regions. well, that constitutes a much larger portion of ukraine than the areas currently held by the russian-backed separatists and includes a port. be interesting to see how the ukrainian military responds to that.
crisis. the u.s. continues to warn moscow could strike ukraine at any moment. still holds out some hope diplomatic efforts will prevail. meanwhile, violence continues to escalate in ukraine. officials say more than 100 cease-fire violations in the eastern part of the country recorded just this weekend. stoking even more fears that an invasion could happen soon. right now it s estimated as many as 190,000 russian personnel are in and around ukraine including the breakaway regions in eastern europe. cnn s arlette saenz is live at the white house following the fast-moving developments. last hour i spoke with cnn anchor and chief national security correspondent jim sciutto in ukraine about this new u.s. intelligence and here s what he told me. reporter: latest u.s. intelligence assessment orders have been sent to tactical commanders to proceed with an invasion of ukraine. this according to officials with direct knowledge of that intelligence reporting by myself
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this is the planning effect. vladimir putin ordering troops into eastern ukraine, creating a perilous situation and really raising questions about european order. joining me now is democratic senator chris van holland who just returned from the munich security conference. senator, a pleasure to see you. is this an invasion? john, good to be with you. yes, this is an invasion of ukrainian territory. it is a violation of their sovereignty. the real question as you ve been discussing this morning is what do we do next. answer that for me. well, i am glad to see the biden administration impose sanctions on anyone doing business or involved with these breakaway regions. but we do need to go further and
arms. simultaneously, we re seeing claims out of donetsk and luhansk, those breakaway regions that we spend so much time talking about recently, they re asserting their territorial claims were hearing here in russia that this is all about those territorial claims. makes you wonder why were seen video of russian tanks porn across the border from belarus. i think there is still gonna be some narrative development here in moscow today. but this is about the russian audiences been told, now, and it s interesting because they seem to really be enter emphasizing certain key points. they re not using the word war, push decision strikes not harming civilians, that is what we re seeing. and the expectation to see vladimir putin again today. at the moment, not aware of a publicly scheduled meeting, but he can appear at any moment on television. as he did at 5:45 this morning. matt, what would it be for