EUR/JPY IS UNDER PRESSURE AS TRADERS WEIGH THE UKRAINE CRISIS

• EUR/JPY is under pressure as traders await developments to unfold over the Ukraine crisis. 
• Risk-off is supporting the yen, sinking global stocks.
• Vladimir Putin signed a decree that recognises independent Ukraine states.

EUR/JPY is trading flat on the session within the 129.36 and 129.90 range. The growing concerns about the Russia-Ukraine tensions have helped support the yen at the start of the week across the currency board. Risk-off was kicked off by the Kremlin saying that there were no concrete plans for a summit over Ukraine between the Russian and US presidents.

Vladimir Putin signed a decree that recognises Donetsk and Luhansk in Eastern Ukraine as independent states. Additionally, Putin ordered troops to move into the region on a peacemaking patrol. The US expects Russian troops could move into the Donbas region of Ukraine as soon as Monday evening or Tuesday eastern time.

Meanwhile, an emergency UN Council meeting on Ukraine, chaired by Russia, which currently holds the presidency of the Council is underway. Nation members support a clear and unequivocal response to Russia’s provocation, urging Russia to withdraw from the regions it now recognises as independent and to return to a discussion within the Normandy format.

In response to the Kremlin’s actions today, the West is promising to respond with sanctions. US President Biden signed an executive order Monday imposing sanctions that target two Russia-backed breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine.

”The order bars “new investment, trade and financing by US persons to, from, or in” the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, located in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement,” CBS News reported.

NATO and European officials also condemned Putin’s actions in statements. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the move “further undermines” Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“I condemn Russia’s decision to extend recognition to the self-proclaimed ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ and ‘Luhansk People’s Republic,'” he said.

“This further undermines Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, erodes efforts towards a resolution of the conflict, and violates the Minsk Agreements, to which Russia is a party.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke out on the mater on Monday and said that Putin’s recognition of the separatist regions was an “ill omen and a very dark sign.” The UK plans to announce new sanctions on Russia on Tuesday, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Twitter.

As the conflict over Ukraine appeared to worsen, US equities futures and European stocks fell with the Stoxx Europe 600 index has dropped to its lowest point since October. Futures on 10-year US Treasury notes increased, also representing investors’ appetite for safe havens.