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Hey, good morning, playbookers. I'm Raghuma Navalin. It's Monday.

In today's show, a look at what's ahead when it comes to Ukraine.

It's your Politico Playbook Daily Briefing.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into regions of Ukraine.

The move came less than a day after Putin and President Joe Biden agreed in principle

to make a last-ditch effort at diplomacy with a face-to-face meeting.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was said to iron out those details in a meeting with his Russian counterpart on Thursday.

But with the Russian military rolling across Ukraine's borders, there are questions about

whether that can still happen.

Our colleagues Brian Bender and Paul McCleary put it like this, quote, welcome to the

New Cold War.

And like the last one, strap in for a long and costly military and diplomatic duel with

the Kremlin.

As of Monday night, the White House was refusing to call this a, quote, invasion, though we'll see how long that lasts given public pressure from lawmakers.

Senior administration officials danced around the matter in a background briefing with reporters

refusing to answer the eyeword question because of the consequences it would bring.

As Politico's Paul McLeary and Andrew Desideria report, calling Russia's move into the separatist

areas, which administration officials said last night were, quote, long anticipated,

an invasion would, quote, trigger sanctions on Russia and imperial diplomatic meetings that were

set on the condition that Russia not invade Ukraine.

Rather, Biden officials sought to argue that Russia moving troops into the Dombas region

...