Armored vehicles move across the town of Armyansk, northern Crimea. Early on February 24, President Putin announced a special military operation to be conducted by the Russian Armed Forces in response to appeals for help from the leaders of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. Sergei Malgavko/TASS (Photo by Sergei Malgavko/TASS via Getty Images)

Russia launched an attack on Ukraine overnight, with Russian President Vladimir Putin announcing the beginning of a “special military operation” in a televised address to the nation as troops and tanks crossed the border. The Ukrainian State Border Service said troops attacked Ukraine from Belarus, as well as from the Russian and Crimean borders. Explosions were heard across the country and in some of Ukraine’s largest cities, including the capital, Kyiv. This morning, the Ukrainian government declared martial law and called for international support. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country has cut diplomatic ties with Russia.

Shelling and explosions: “Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted this morning. “Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes. This is a war of aggression. Ukraine will defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now.” A senior Ukrainian official said the main airport in Kyiv was under assault, The Washington Post reported. Another official said the city of Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine, was being shelled. Large explosions were also seen near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city. The Russian military claimed to have wiped out Ukraine’s air defenses within hours. Ukraine has halted all civilian flights. Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksii Arestovich said some 40 people had been killed so far and several dozen wounded.

U.S. response: President Joe Biden tweeted late Wednesday night, “President Zelenskyy reached out to me tonight and we just finished speaking. I condemned this unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces. I briefed him on the steps we are taking to rally international condemnation, including tonight at the UN Security Council.” Biden said that he will meet today with the leaders of the G7 nations, and will impose sanctions on Russia while providing support and assistance to Ukraine. “Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its Allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way,” Biden said. “The world will hold Russia accountable.” The president will speak later today “to announce the further consequences the United States and our Allies and partners will impose on Russia for this needless act of aggression against Ukraine and global peace and security,” the White House announced on Wednesday night.

Putin’s warning: Amid growing international condemnation, Putin warned, “whoever tries to impede us, let alone create threats for our country and its people, must know that the Russian response will be immediate and lead to the consequences you have never seen in history.” He added that “no one should have any doubts that a direct attack on our country will lead to the destruction and horrible consequences for any potential aggressor.”

EU sanctions: The European Union is set to present a package of new sanctions at an emergency summit this evening. EU President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement today that the sanctions “will target the strategic sectors of the Russian economy by blocking the access to technologies and markets that are key for Russia. We will weaken Russia’s economic base and its capacity to modernize. And in addition, we will freeze Russian assets in the European Union and stop the access of Russian banks to European financial markets.”

Israelis in Ukraine: Israel is calling on citizens still in Ukraine to cross the border into Poland, where Israeli authorities will assist them in flying to Israel, Ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky told KAN News. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid released the country’s second statement on the crisis today. “The Russian attack on Ukraine is a serious violation of the international order. Israel condemns the attack, and is ready and prepared to provide humanitarian assistance to the citizens of Ukraine,” he said. The statement also noted that “Israel has deep, long-lasting, and good relations with Russia and with Ukraine. There are tens of thousands of Israelis in both countries, and there are hundreds of thousands of Jews in both countries. Maintaining their security and safety is at the top of our considerations.” Lapid said Israel has coordinated with Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova to enable the safe exit of Israelis from the conflict zone.

Heard yesterday: On Wednesday morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) compared Russia’s moves to the pre-WWII Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia, saying, “This is the Sudetenland, that’s what people were saying there.”

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) speaks at an “End Fossil Fuel” rally near the U.S. Capitol on June 29, 2021, in Washington, D.C. Organized by Our Revolution, demonstrators called on Congress to take action in ending fossil fuel subsidies.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said he was encouraged by what he described as a range of productive discussions with high-ranking officials last week on a congressional delegation to Israel and the Palestinian territories alongside members of the House Democratic caucus. “I thought it was a very positive trip,” Khanna said in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kasselon Wednesday, recounting his first visit to the region as a congressman. “I was able to build relationships with many people in Israel.”

Lapid read: Led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the delegation met with a host of Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, President Isaac Herzog and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, who expressed familiarity with Khanna’s new book, Dignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us. The Bay Area congressman and leading House progressive suggested he was more pleased that Lapid had read John Rawls’ classic work of political philosophy, A Theory of Justice. “It was an interesting conversation,” he told JI.

‘Candid conversation’: Not every interaction was as amiable, even as Khanna — who also met with Palestinian leaders — described a good-faith “dialogue” that nevertheless included some “places of disagreement.” The congressman recalled “a candid conversation with” Bennett in which he raised “human rights concerns” over “forced evictions” of Palestinians and called for a need “to open up Gaza” to increased economic activity. “You can’t have 42% unemployment in a society that’s run by Hamas and hope for long-term peace,” Khanna said, “and I think the prime minister understands that.”

Fielding criticism: Khanna has maintained that a progressive foreign policy view, including criticism of Israeli policies, is compatible with support for the Jewish state. His approach has drawn scrutiny from pro-Israel advocates as well as far-left critics, who took issue with his recent trip. “When I get criticized, I always listen to it if people have a good point,” he told JI. “I’m always open to it. But I’m not going to back away from my belief that Israel is an ally and in the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship. That’s a conviction.”

Houthi designation: Whether the U.S. should redesignate the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen as terrorists “came up once or twice” with Israeli leaders, according to Khanna. The Israelis have reportedly been urging the Biden administration to do so following a series of Houthi missile and drone attacks in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Khanna, who is outspoken on Yemen’s civil war, objects to the classification, suggesting that it could impede humanitarian aid. “The Houthis have not been responsible for nearly the civilian loss of life and the blockade,” he added, referring to the Saudi blockade of Yemen that is said to have caused widespread famine. “There is guilt on both sides,” Khanna told JI, but the terrorist label “wouldn’t further peace.”

Read the full interview here.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing to examine U.S.-Russia policy at the U.S. Capitol on December 7, 2021, in Washington, D.C.

A dozen Senate Democrats urged the Biden administration on Wednesday against redesignating the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. The group, led by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), argued in a letter to Secretary of State Tony Blinken that reinstating the designation would further destabilize the situation in Yemen and would not effectively stop the Yemeni militia group’s terrorist activities.

Quotable: “We recognize the destabilizing role of the Houthis in the conflict in Yemen, including the obstruction of humanitarian assistance, the use of child soldiers, and cross-border attacks on civilian targets in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” the letter reads. “This behavior is abhorrent and prolongs the suffering of the Yemeni people. However, designating the Houthis as an FTO would not force the Houthis to stop these behaviors, but instead risk adverse effects that would only increase the suffering of the millions of Yemenis who live in territory under Houthi control.”

At issue: The senators said that redesignation would inevitably cut off nearly all food, fuel, medicine and foreign remittances into Yemen as well as escalate the humanitarian crisis to unmanageable levels. They also said that the FTO designation would “hamstring diplomatic efforts to bring the war to an end.”

Pushback: “We urge you not to pursue a designation that would have little practical impact on the Houthi leadership but would have catastrophic humanitarian consequences,” the senators wrote. “Millions of Yemeni lives hang in the balance, and the United States should remain focused on alleviating the human suffering and ending this war.”

Sign me up: The letter was signed by Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).

Read the full story here.

Meanwhile: The Biden administration announced new sanctions on Wednesday targeting the Houthis’ Iran-linked international financing network, an approach that some experts have been advocating for short of the full FTO designation. The administration is reportedly still considering whether to reimpose the FTO designation.

Elsewhere: Houthi rebels detained a former press officer from the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, which has been shuttered since 2015. At least 11 local former embassy staffers are currently held by the group.