On Tuesday, the United States threatened to impose "massive economic measures" on Russia and to shore up the defence of NATO's eastern flank should it use the more than 100,000 troops it has amassed on its border to intensify the conflict in Ukraine Report informs, citing The National.
"We will respond with massive economic measures, including those that have not been used before," US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told reporters at the State Department, threatening "very significant" damage to the Russian economy and financial system.
Ms Nuland noted that the US and Europe have "a common understanding of the intensive financial measures we'd need to take, and also now in the context of export restrictions, that will have a painful impact on Russia."
"As we've done in the past, the US may take one set of measures and Europe and other allies may take parallel measures that are not exactly the same but also painful to Russia because they have different economic exposure," she said.