Oil surged past triple-digit prices for the first time since 2014. The breach of the psychologically significant milestone is bound to reinforce fears about inflation.
World leaders are reacting to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with raw outrage and vows of unprecedented sanctions that shroud a sense of powerlessness to defend Ukraine militarily without running the risk of a wider war in Europe.
The urgent U.N. Security Council meeting was meant as an eleventh hour effort to dissuade Russia from sending troops into Ukraine. But the message became moot even as it was being delivered.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, unleashing airstrikes on cities and military bases and sending in troops and tanks from three sides in an attack that could rewrite the post-Cold War security order.
Since breaking from the Soviet Union, Ukraine has wavered between the influences of Moscow and the West, surviving scandal and conflict with its democracy intact. Now, it faces an existential threat.
Russia began evacuating its embassy in Kyiv, and Ukraine urged its citizens to leave Russia. Those moves come as the region braced for further confrontation Wednesday after President Vladimir Putin received authorization to use military force outside his country.