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

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a joint appearance from the State Department with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, announced that he would not attend a meeting with his Russian counterpart on Thursday as planned.

"Now that we see the invasion is beginning, and Russia has made clear its wholesale rejection of diplomacy, it does not make sense to go forward with that meeting at this time," Blinken said Tuesday. "I consulted with our allies and partners. All agreed. And today I sent Foreign Minister Lavrov a letter informing him of this."

Blinken had agreed last week to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday, provided there was no invasion of Ukraine, but called Putin’s recent comments “deeply disturbing” and placed aggression in the region squarely on Russia despite the Kremlin’s claims.

"Any further escalatory steps by Russia will be met with further swift and severe measures, coordinated with allies and partners," Blinken added, echoing remarks from Biden.

After meeting earlier with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and ahead of his appearance with Blinken, Kuleba went to the White House to meet with Biden where the president updated him on the U.S. response, including the new sanctions, and reaffirmed U.S. security and economic assistance will continue, according to the White House.

The U.S. Treasury Department has released details of the new sanctions that President Joe Biden announced, including the specific elites who are sanctioned and more details about limits on Russian financial institutions.

A senior Biden administration official told reporters on an afternoon call that while "these are severe costs that we're imposing today," the U.S. was choosing to hold off with more severe sanctions as leverage to try to deter a wider-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The official also said "none of the sanctions are designed to disrupt the flow of energy to global markets" and noted the administration deliberately tried to make sure the pain was felt by Russia's economy, not by the U.S.

The Treasury Department release detailed that it was sanctioning five "Kremlin-connected elites" and two Russian state-owned financial institutions, as well as putting more restrictions on Russian sovereign debt.

The administration official said "sanctions are meant to serve a higher purpose," which they said was to "prevent a large scale invasion of Ukraine that involves the seizure of major cities including Kyiv" as well as "to prevent largescale human suffering" and "to prevent Putin from installing a puppet government that bends to his wishes and denies Ukraine the freedom to set its own course and choose its own destiny."

Asked by ABC News' Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl about sanctioning Putin, the official said that "all options remain on the table."

-ABC News' Ben Gittleson

Earlier in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital city which U.S. officials have warned could see an assault from Russian forces, some Ukrainians demonstrated in support of their country following Moscow's formal recognition of two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.

Individuals waving Ukrainian national and European Union flags were photographed marching and shouting slogans outside the Russian embassy in central Kyiv earlier Tuesday.

In a show of solidarity, demonstrators have also flocked outside the White House in Washington and outside the Russian embassy in Berlin to decry Russian President Vladimir Putin signaling that he is deploying forces to the separatist regions of eastern Ukraine.

Following President Joe Biden's announcement from the White House of additional Russian sanctions and deployments to the region, a senior defense official offered details on U.S. forces headed to the Baltics.

The official said 800 troops from an infantry battalion task force based in Italy will move to the Baltic region, as well as up to eight F-35 fighters from Germany to "several operating locations along NATO's eastern flank."

Additionally, 20 AH-64 Apache helicopters from Germany will head to the Baltic region and 12 AH-64 Apache helicopters from Greece will head to Poland, the official said. 

"These additional personnel are being repositioned to reassure our NATO allies, deter any potential aggression against NATO member states, and train with host-nation forces," the senior defense official said in a statement. "These moves are temporary in nature, and are part of the more than 90,000 U.S. troops already in Europe on rotational and permanent orders."

-ABC News' Matt Seyler