Russia-Ukraine updates: US to ban Russian carriers from its airspace

In remarks during an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting Tuesday, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzia dismissed “highly emotional” criticisms of Russia and said nothing has changed on the ground, while also blaming Ukraine for the decisions President Vladimir Putin’s decisions made earlier in the day.

Nebenzia dismissed “unfounded panic about an impending Russian invasion of Ukraine” — as Russian troops prepare to come across the border -- and painted Russia as a pacifist hero that welcomed refugees who were forced onto buses by Russian-led separatists.

“We’ve just heard a number of highly emotional statements, categorical assessments, and far-reaching conclusions,” he said during the emergency meeting. “I’ll leave the direct verbal assaults against us unanswered. Now it’s important to focus on how to avoid war and how to force Ukraine to stop the shelling and provocations against Donetsk and Luhansk.”

Russian-controlled separatists are responsible for the shelling and for staging the provocations, but Nebenzia worked to portray Ukraine as the aggressor and Russia as the force preventing war, despite it essentially seizing Ukrainian territory.

The Biden administration plans to impose additional sanctions against Russia on Tuesday, a White House official told ABC News. 

"We plan to announce new sanctions on Russia tomorrow in response to Moscow’s decision and actions today," the official said.

The U.S. is consulting with allies and partners now on the way forward, the White House official and a spokesperson for the State Department told ABC News.

Among those consultations was a conversation Secretary of State Antony Blinken had with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba Monday night -- ahead of their in-person meeting Tuesday in Washington -- in which they spoke about the necessity for tough sanctions on Russia.

The spokesperson described Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions on Monday as "a major escalation" and "another indication that Russia is seeking war, not diplomacy."

Earlier on Monday, President Joe Biden tweeted a photo of himself signing an executive order to authorize limited sanctions in response to Russia’s decision to recognize the independence of two regions in eastern Ukraine. 

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan and Justin Gomez

U.S. embassy staff that remained in Ukraine in Lviv have been moved to Poland for the night for security reasons, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Monday. 

The diplomats "will spend the night in Poland," Blinken said, but their departure may be open-ended. They "will regularly return to continue their diplomatic work in Ukraine and provide emergency consular services," Blinken added, without offering more details.

As the U.S. has done for weeks, Blinken urged U.S. citizens to depart the country immediately amid the threat of a Russian invasion "at any moment.” Commercial flights could soon be "severely" restricted, Blinken warned, because of "any Russian military operations."

The State Department has stationed support teams near the Ukrainian border in Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova, along with the U.S. citizen welcome center it opened in Poland last week, Blinken said.

-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan

Democrats are now joining Republicans in the call for stricter sanctions against Russia in the wake of President Vladimir Putin's decision to recognize two separatist regions in Ukraine as independent. 

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., is calling for "crushing sanctions" if "any additional Russian troops or proxy forces cross into Donbas."

"There must be tangible, far-reaching and substantial costs for Russia in response to this unjustified act," Menendez said. 

Sen. Chris Coons, a close ally of President Joe Biden and a senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called for "significant" action to be taken against Russia. 

"The time for taking action to impose significant costs on President Putin and the Kremlin starts now," Coons said late Monday, adding that the U.S. must "swiftly" join NATO allies and European Union partners "to impose forceful new sanctions on Russia."

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan and Allie Pecorin