Not only in the financial markets, but the situation in Eastern Europe is causing pause for those that returned to the states from Covid to return to BOTH Panama and Mexico. I am hearing at from my friends in Ex-Pat Exchange. It is something of a concern. 

The White House has assured this Tuesday that the recognition of the independence of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk supposes “the beginning of an invasion”, already using a term that for weeks has meant for Washington the red line that would trigger unprecedented sanctions.

“We believe that this is, yes, the beginning of an invasion. Russia’s most recent invasion of Ukraine,” Deputy National Security Advisor to the US Presidency, Jon Finer, said in an interview with CNN.

In this sense, and questioned about the nuances of the term used, he has ruled that “an invasion is an invasion and that is what is happening.” However, he has also pointed out that Russia has been overreaching since 2014, when it annexed the Crimean peninsula.

The decree signed on Monday by Russian President Vladimir Putin opens the door to sending troops to eastern Ukraine, under the pretext of a peace mission. The Russian Foreign Ministry has clarified this Tuesday that, “for now”, there is no deployment.

The president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, has avoided using the term invasion and, in fact, in his speech to the nation at dawn, assured that Putin’s decree simply “legalized” the Russian troops that are already on the ground helping the separatist rebels.