two two three one two three one . the results will speak for themselves. sixteen minutes past the hour. let s continue our live breaking news coverage of the war and bring back our correspondent and co-anchor griff jenkins. he s live in lavae grippe trace . the leaders of ukraine speaking out about the latest round of sanctions against russia saying they don t go far enough. ukraine s foreign minister tweeting this quote i appreciate the strengthening of the fifth eu sanctions package bans in russian coal vessels accessing eu ports and road transport operators. but it will take a gas oil embargo and this swift of all russian banks to stop putin difficult times required difficult decisions. joining us now is judith miller. she s also an adjunct fellow at the manhattan institute for research. judith, thank you for being here tonight . you know, i spoke yesterday with a member of parliament
folks what s happening here. we re getting reports of explosions from our folks on the ground in several different cities in ukraine and also from our frederik pleitgen who is on the russian side of the border in the belgorod region. i want to get to cnn s matthew chance because jim sciutto mentioned what s happening in kyiv and we should say near kyiv because reports are not confirming that these explosions that we re hearing are necessarily in kyiv but near kyiv. also getting information, matthew, that perhaps you can respond to. i told jim sciutto about the jets being heard overhead. he talked about that. and that ukraine has restricted airspace to civilian aircraft. but also ukraine s foreign minister tweeting out just moments ago that putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of ukraine. peaceful ukrainian cities are under strikes. this is a war of aggression. ukraine will defend itself and will win. the world can and must stop putin. the time is act is now.
we have seen sanctions against oligarchs, individuals, including, of course, president putin himself, banks, defense companies in russia, even export restrictions. but the most damaging measure of all would be dis disconnecting russia from s.w.i.f.t. and that measure has not, yet, been implemented. here s why. ukraine s western allies are cutting russia s bank ting tieso the global financial system. a bigger blow would be disconnecting russia from s.w.i.f.t., the high-security messaging network that underpins transactions across the world. without s.w.i.f.t., russian companies would struggle to get money in or out of the country. it is an option that was considered in 2014 in retaliation for russia s illegal annexation of crimea. then, a former-russian finance minister said it could shrink their economy by 5% in the first year, alone. the measure wasn t implemented then. ukraine says it must happen now. the foreign minister tweeting, i
willing to take, as what we saw at the beginning of this show. the bombings and the videos that you re seeing, of the civilian infrastructure that russia is targeting where you don t see any ukrainian military in that area. these are civilian apartment buildings and orphanages and kindergartens that we ve been talking about with u.s. officials. so whether or not that changes the united states response, that remains to be seen. but you are right. that does come as today they did announce more sanctions today at the white house on russian oligarchs, on putin s personal spokesperson, dimitri peskov. whether or not there are more added to that list remains to be seen in the coming days. thank you, kaitlan. thank you, michael. and you re right, that video, it s horrific and it is hard to watch. we appreciate both of you joining us. now i want to bring in cnn military analyst and retired air force colonel cedric leighton. colonel, thank you so much. the fighting deadly enough. now this pla
martial law. ukraine s foreign minister tweeting this. quote, putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of ukraine. peaceful ukrainian cities are under strikes. this is a war of aggression. ukraine will defend itself, and we will win. the world can and must stop putin. the time to act is now. however, president vladimir putin bluntly threatening those who might be tempted to intervene, saying this. quote, you should know that russia s response will be immediate and lead to such consequences as you have never experienced in your history. dire to say the least. we also want to share with you a powerful moment from the ukrainian border city of kharkiv, where the mayor has warned people not to leave their homes. but not long ago, this small group were seen kneeling on the cold stones of the square and praying. we presume for their country, for their loved ones.