Ukraine has declared a state of emergency for 30 days, from midnight tonight local time (22:00 GMT)

The bill was approved by Ukraine's parliament just now. It introduces personal document checks and gives the government power to impose a curfew if needed.

Ukraine will impose restrictions on a range of digital and radio communication services, which the government says could inflame the situation.

And it means military reservists will not be allowed to leave the country.

The declaration affects all of Ukraine apart from two eastern regions which have been in a state of emergency since 2014.

Image source, AFP

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken with UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to co-ordinate the economic measures both countries are taking against Russia, the State Department says.

During the call with his UK counterpart, Blinken condemned Russia's decision to send troops into rebel-held areas of eastern Ukraine and affirmed the US position that those areas are part of Ukraine's sovereign territory.

Image source, Reuters

Nord Stream 2 is a 1,200km pipeline under the Baltic Sea, which will take gas from the Russian coast near St Petersburg to Lubmin in Germany.

It has not yet opened, and certification was halted yesterday by the German government.

Nord Stream 2 runs parallel to an existing gas pipeline, Nord Stream, which has been working since 2011.

Together, these two pipelines could deliver 110bn cubic metres of gas to Europe every year. That is more than a quarter , externalof all the gas that European Union countries use annually.

The US and UK, along with Russia's neighbours Poland and Ukraine, strongly oppose Nord Stream 2.

They fear if it were to start operating, it would give Russia even more of a stranglehold over gas supplies to Europe.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has called Nord Stream 2 "a dangerous political weapon".

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Europe needs to "snip the drip feed into our bloodstream from Nord Stream".

Read more:

How does the pipeline fit into the Ukraine-Russia crisis?

The White House has just announced sanctions on the makers of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that connects Russia and Germany.

"Today, I have directed my administration to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG and its corporate officers," President Joe Biden says in a statement.

"These steps are another piece of our initial tranche of sanctions in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine."

The €10bn (£8.4bn) project was completed last September.

The US decision comes after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the pipeline would stay closed in response to Russia's moves against Ukraine.

Germany and France's capitals have shown solidarity with Kyiv tonight by each lighting up a historic monument in blue and yellow, the national colours of Ukraine.

"We are showing our solidarity with the people of Ukraine, the many Berliners with Ukrainian roots but also with the many Russians who want peace in Russia and Ukraine," Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey says.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Imogen Foulkes
BBC News, Geneva

Image source, Getty Images

Switzerland says it won’t impose sanctions on Russia over Ukraine – for now.

Government ministers met today and condemned Russia’s recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk as a violation of international law, and promised to make sure Switzerland could not be used as a platform to get round EU sanctions.

But they stopped short of announcing sanctions of their own.

Russia is an important business partner for Switzerland. The Nord Stream consortium building gas pipelines from Russia to Europe has its headquarters in the Swiss town of Zug. Russian company Gazprom, which will fill the pipes, has an office there too.

In response to the 2014 annexation of Crimea, Switzerland’s response was the same - no sanctions. But no sanction-busting either.

This time the stakes may be higher. Business with Russia may be good, but business with the EU (far and away Switzerland’s biggest trading partner) is better.

Pressure from Brussels could make this neutral non-EU member change its mind.

Image source, Getty Images

A senior US defence official has said the Pentagon's assessment is that Putin is fully prepared for a large-scale invasion, which could happen at any moment.

"He is as ready as he can be. We've been saying any day now and it's certainly possible that today is that day," the official says, while declining to predict that it will take place today.

When asked about the Russian troops surrounding Ukraine, the official says they are "uncoiled and ready to go".

Approximately 80% of Russian forces are now in forward positions - meaning they are ready to invade if given orders, according to the latest US assessment.

On Monday, about 40 to 50% of troops were said to be in that position.

Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian troops into eastern Ukraine, after recognising two rebel-held regions as independent states.

Military units heading into Ukraine will be drawn from up to 190,000 personnel gathered close to Ukraine's borders in recent months.

They are equipped with everything from tanks and artillery to air power and naval support.

On Monday, Putin decided to recognise the two Russian-backed regions in east Ukraine, the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, as independent states.

A short while later, he ordered troops into the two regions to "maintain peace".

Pictures emerged appearing to show Russian military vehicles heading towards the Ukrainian border.

The US said it was "nonsense" to describe the Russian troops in Ukraine as "peacekeepers".

Ukraine's president said his country was "not afraid of anything or anyone".

The estimated number of Russian troops deployed in and around Ukraine has ranged from 100,000 to 190,000 in recent weeks.

On Friday, the US government said Russia had between 169,000 and 190,000 personnel in and around Ukraine.

Read in full.

It's been another busy day of news in the developing Ukraine crisis. From sanctions to petrol prices, here's the latest:

• All Ukrainians living in Russia - about three million people - have been told by Ukraine to leave. Ukraine is also calling up all its reservists aged 18 to 60, and is also set to declare a month-long state of emergency
• Ukraine has also been targeted by a large-scale cyber attack on its government website and banks

• Meanwhile Russia is reportedly edging its troops closer to the border. It has evacuated its embassy in Kyiv and has lowered its flag there
• President Vladimir Putin released a video speech earlier, saying he was still open for dialogue but that Russia's interests were non-negotiable
• There's been a lot happening at the UN general assembly. The UN secretary general warned the world is "facing a moment of peril", describing the situation in Ukraine as "the most serious global peace and security crisis in recent years"
• Western countries have continued to announce sanctions against Russia. After being locked in talks, the EU has approved a package of sanctions that target individuals with a travel ban and asset freeze, as well as restrictions on the Russian state's ability to access the EU's financial markets
• In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has defended his sanctions (targeting three Russian billionaires and five banks) after some MPs said they didn't go far enough. He said the UK would send more military support to Ukraine. Meanwhile the UK's defence secretary described Putin as going "full tonto"
• The media watchdog Ofcom is going to review the licence for broadcaster RT - formerly known as Russia Today - after claims it's used by Putin to spread fake news. RT have called it a "slippery slope" for freedom of speech
• And average petrol and diesel prices have hit new highs as the crisis continues to affect oil prices, the RAC says

Image source, Reuters

Ukrainian cyber-security agents facing an uphill battlepublished at 17:45 Greenwich Mean Time 23 February 2022

17:45 GMT 23 February 2022

Myroslava Petsa
BBC News Ukrainian, Kyiv

Image source, Getty Images

Ukraine is no stranger to cyber-attacks and so a series of strikes on government websites today could normally be diminished and the possible danger they pose shrugged off. But not now, when tensions are this high.

Ukraine hasn’t attributed responsibility for the latest cyber-attack yet, but the hybrid warfare it’s been experiencing since 2014 usually had one country to blame – Russia.

It’s Russia the Ukrainian officials blamed for this year’s attacks, which saw websites of major government institutions and banks go dark.

And Russian IPs were traced by Kyiv's energy companies when Ukraine suffered a power grid hack back in December 2015.

I visited Ukraine’s Centre for Cyber-security last month and was struck by the fact just 19 professionals work there.

Ukraine has other institutions that deal with cyber-security and last month the defence minister announced the formation of cyber forces to fight Russia on every flank. Independent "white hackers" are also already to defend the country.

But if Ukraine wants to have a bigger chance of survival in its battles against Russia’s hacking capabilities, it probably needs to bolster its cybersecurity.

Image source, Reuters

More now from UN Secretary General António Guterres, who has been speaking at the organisation's headquarters in New York.

The UN's General Assembly is meeting to discuss Ukraine.

Guterres says the meeting is happening "in the face of the most serious global peace and security crisis in recent years, and certainly in my time as secretary general".

He says this moment is one he "truly hoped would not come".

"The latest developments regarding Ukraine are a cause of grave concern, and they include reports of increased ceasefire violations across the contact line, and a real risk of further escalation on the ground," he says.

Ukraine's parliament is expected to approve a bill declaring a state of emergency for 30 days, from midnight tonight.

The draft document, which has been seen by Reuters news agency, introduces personal document checks and gives the government the power to impose a curfew if needed.

According to the draft, Ukraine would impose restrictions on a range of digital and radio communication services, which the government says could inflame the situation, while military reservists would not be allowed to leave the country.

Image source, Reuters

The US tells the UN General Assembly that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could displace as many as five million people.

"If Russia continues down this path, it could - according to our estimates - create a new refugee crisis, one of the largest facing the world today," says America's ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

Image source, PA Media

Russia's Ministry of Defence has hit back at British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace’s comments about the Scots Guards helping to defeat Tsar Nicholas I in the mid-19th Century Crimean war.

Wallace was speaking to military personnel in Westminster when he was filmed saying "the Scots Guards kicked the backside of Tsar Nicholas I, in 1853 in Crimea”, adding "we can always do it again".

Russian Ministry of Defence spokesman Gen Igor Konashenkov has been quoted by a Russian news agency as saying: “We recommend that British service personnel properly study not only Russia's geography, but also its history, so that they do not enrich with their lives our common military history for the benefit of the poorly educated British politicians."

If you feel inclined, you can read a BBC History guide to what happened in the Crimean War here.

UN Secretary General António Guterres has been speaking at the organisation's headquarters in New York now, warning that the world is facing a "moment of peril" over the Ukraine and Russia tensions.

Addressing the UN's General Assembly, which is meeting to discuss Ukraine, Guterres says it is time for "restraint, reason and de-escalation" to avoid "a scale and severity of need unseen for many years".

"It is time to establish a ceasefire and return to the path of dialogue and negotiation," he says.

Guterres says he is "fully committed to resolve this crisis without further bloodshed".

Jessica Parker
BBC Brussels correspondent

Image source, EPA

It's understood Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova are among names on the EU's sanctions list.

The bloc's initial package, announced on Tuesday, was officially adopted by the EU this afternoon.

Sources have indicated Shoigu and Zakharova will be among those subject to an EU travel ban and have their assets frozen.

Image source, Reuters

It's already known that over 300 Duma (legislative assembly) deputies will be targeted.

Meanwhile an EU diplomat tells the BBC that, in talks today between member states, there were calls for the bloc to be ready to go further.

The diplomat says: "Some wishes were voiced for a 'big bang' sanctions package."

The EU says it "stands ready" to adopt additional measures if needed.

Meanwhile, Margarita Simonyan, the editor of the broadcaster RT, has also tweeted to say, external that she is on the list.

The idea that Russia is to blame for the crisis in Ukraine is an invention by the West, a spokesperson for Russia's foreign ministry says.

Maria Zakharova tells the BBC's Steve Rosenberg Russia would have faced sanctions however it behaved, and London and Washington should consider their own actions in international conflicts.

Myroslava Petsa
BBC News Ukrainian, Kyiv

Ukraine's Parliament is expected to approve a bill declaring a state of emergency, which would cover the whole of Ukraine apart from the Donetsk and Luhansk areas.

What will the state of emergency mean?

The first preparation under way is - as President Zelensky said yesterday in his address to the nation - that Ukraine is to call up its reservists.

I know a lot of men and women were called up today and went to military offices today.

The state of emergency would not be the same as martial law, though this may also be imposed in Ukraine - as the secretary of the national security and defence council said today - in case a further invasion happens.

It will give the Ukrainian authorities the right to shield its population and statehood from possible danger.

Paul Adams
BBC diplomatic correspondent

Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications has told the BBC Ukrainian service that another large-scale cyber-attack is taking place.

No further details are available at this stage.

This is the second such attack on Ukraine in less than a week.

Earlier, Western officials said the level of cyber activity against Ukraine was “consistent with a previous pattern” and that no particular spike in attacks had been observed.

“We’ve not seen something that’s taken it to a completely different level,” an official told the BBC.

As we've been reporting, Ukraine has urged its citizens in Russia to leave the country immediately, as it braces for a possible invasion. So how many people could be affected? A lot.

When Russia conducted its 2010 census, there were around two million Ukrainians living there as Russian nationals and permanent residents, plus a further 1.6 million economic migrants.

The 2021 census results are not available yet. But a rough estimate of other Russian authorities suggests that around two million Ukrainians live permanently in Russia and another two million live there temporarily. The latter number fluctuates and is not officially confirmed.

By 2017, after the 2014 conflict in the Donbas, the number of Ukrainian migrants in Russia had slumped.