Biden announces sanctions over 'Russian invasion'

The measures target Russian banks and sovereign debt, among other steps.

One of the worst security crises in Europe in decades is unfolding as Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized sending what he calls peacekeping troops to separatist areas of Donetsk and Luhansk after recognizing them as independent.

Weeks of intense diplomacy have so far failed as Moscow calls for security guarantees, including a promise that its neighbor Ukraine will never join NATO, while the United States and its allies offer Putin confidence-building and arms control steps.

"He's setting up a rationale to take more territory by force," Biden said at the White House.

"I'm going to begin to impose sanctions in response, far beyond the steps we and our allies and partners implemented in 2014," he added, in a reference to Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.