Ukraine calls up reservists, plans national emergency declaration as U.S. and allies hit Russia with new sanctions

As the U.S. and other nations announced further sanctions against Russia in a bid to dissuade President Vladimir Putin from launching a full scale invasion of Ukraine, the situation on the ground was getting tenser by the minute. 

With violence escalating in the country's east, Ukraine's government called up military reservists and on Wednesday, the National Security Council met in Kyiv and asked lawmakers to approve a national state of emergency, which would give authorities more powers to "strengthen security of public places and locations that are critical for the public," Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine's national security chief, said.

Danilov said the state of emergency would be imposed in all regions apart from Donetsk and Luhansk, where Ukrainian forces have already been at war with Russian-backed separatists for almost eight years. He said it would last at least 30 days. The emergency declaration must be approved by Ukraine's parliament, but a vote was expected later Wednesday.  

"Ukraine is a peaceful nation," Ukrainian president Volodymir Zelensky said Wednesday. "We want calm, but if we keep silent now, we will be extinct tomorrow."