Political | Process

The U.S. State Department is warning Americans in Ukraine Monday that “there is a strong likelihood that any Russian military operations would severely restrict commercial air travel.”

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• A U.S. official has warned the United Nations that Russia has compiled a list of Ukrainians “to be killed or sent to camps following a military occupation.”

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has informed the leaders of France and Germany Monday that he will recognize the independence of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic, Russian state media is reporting.

• Both separatist regions in eastern Ukraine are Russian-backed.

• Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told Fox News’ ‘America’s Newsroom’ on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “acting in a way consistent with a man who has decided that he wants to invade Ukraine again.”

• “We’re absolutely prepared to sit down and seriously discuss with Mr. Putin a diplomatic way forward here, and we have been serious about it now for weeks,” Kirby said. “We have laid out tangible potential proposals here for the Russians to reciprocate. And they simply haven’t been willing to go there.”

• During an appearance yesterday on Fox News, Kirby said those proposals include changing “the scope and scale of some of our [military] exercises in Europe” and “being willing to talk about offensive missile capabilities in Europe.”

• “I mean, look, it’s very clear what Mr. Putin is doing. I mean, he’s continued to add military capability. We continue to believe that he is acting in a way consistent with a man who has decided that he wants to invade Ukraine again,” the Pentagon official said Monday.

• “And if he does, this will be a war of choice because… he will be leaving on the table, valid diplomatic proposals that we have put forward, that the West has put forward.”

• A White House official tells Fox News’ Patrick Ward that President Biden is meeting with his national security team Monday about the Russia-Ukraine standoff.

• Separately, a senior administration official told Fox News’ Edward Lawrence that a meeting Thursday between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will contain discussions about a potential summit between Biden and Putin, including where it would be, when, and how it goes forward.