EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, speaking after a virtual meeting of bloc foreign ministers, sounded more alarms, and said the Russian troop presence had grown to 150,000 along Ukraine's eastern frontier. Calling it the biggest military buildup ever near Ukraine's borders, he added “a spark” was all that was needed to set off a major war. 

Verbosity is one of the few tangible instruments the West has to try and influence Moscow. It has supplied some military support to Kyiv in the way of weapons sales. But it is in no position – be it NATO, Washington, Berlin, Paris, or the EU - to intervene militarily.  

Biden’s sanctions included the expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats alleged to be involved in spying and a bar on U.S. financial institutions buying rouble-denominated Russian sovereign bonds from June 14.

Ukraine’s defence minister said Russia’s military buildup could bring more troops into the region and potentially extend to using Crimea for storing nuclear weapons.