How Russia’s invasion of Ukraine impacts us in the CSRA

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Ukraine is just a couple of days into a Russian invasion.

The U.S Pentagon is calling this the “initial phase.”

United States President Joe Biden addressed the nation Thursday afternoon with a new round of sanctions on Russia.

“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now and his country will bear the consequences,” he said. “We have purposely designed these sanctions to maximize long-term impact on Russia and to minimize the impact on the United States and our allies.”

The president also announced a new deployment of ground and air forces to Europe. He says U.S. troops will not engage in the conflict in Ukraine but will be there to defend our NATO allies Soldiers right here at home also have a hand in the fight, assisting Ukraine with its cyber defense.

We talked to a local expert who says stopping Russia’s cyber force is the next step.

Fort Gordon’s Cyber Center is on the frontlines of U.S. efforts with NATO, to aid Ukraine. We can expect activity to start picking up with cyber defense.

We also talked about the impacts that’ll hurt us here at home. Most of them hitting our wallets.

“This is a unified assault from land forces, seas forces, and air forces, so we’re looking at a full modern war attacking a capital from three sides of Ukraine,” said Dr. Craig Albert, director of intelligence and security studies, Augusta University.

The reason behind this is Ukraine’s interest in joining NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin says this is NATO looking to gain more control.

“He sees this as an aggressive and assertive force built against him,” he said.

The impacts of a full-scale invasion will be felt here at home, within the next 48 hours.

“Increase in gas prices automatically, an increase in inflation if this invasion goes on, you’re going to see more activity from Fort Gordon,” said Albert.

All eyes are on cyberattack defense.

“Fort Gordon is the pivotal part for the United States in that counter-attack,” he said.

The United States is actively working with NATO to help Ukraine fight against Russian cyberattacks. Dr. Albert says Russia is expected to take control of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv. The fear is when democratic countries are attacked, experts say it usually gets worse.

“You have to be concerned that this might only be the first move in this conquest,” he said.

Other countries around Ukraine, are part of NATO. Overnight, experts say that Russia deployed a new type of cyberattack on Ukraine that completely wipes out data in Ukraine. Fort Gordon is going to play a major role in making sure something like that doesn’t happen in the U.S.

“If one state is attacked in NATO, all states must respond,” he said,

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