Russia’s upper house of parliament has approved President Vladimir Putin permission to use military force outside the country.

That could presage a broader attack on Ukraine after the U.S. said an invasion was already underway there.

On Tuesday, Putin asked the upper house to approve the army's use outside the country to support separatists in Ukraine, Deputy Defense Minister Nikolay Pankov told a session of the chamber.

"Negotiations have stalled. The Ukrainian leadership has taken the path of violence and bloodshed," a uniformed Pankov said during an ongoing unscheduled session of the Federation Council called at Putin's request.

On Monday, Putin ordered a "peacekeeping operation" in Ukraine's Luhansk and Donetsk regions after recognizing the separatist regions' independence, paving the way to provide them more military support – a direct challenge to the West that will fuel fears that Russia could imminently invade Ukraine.

The carefully staged move announced in the Kremlin could lead to new sanctions on Russia and flies in the face of European efforts for a diplomatic solution to the escalating crisis, which has brought East-West relations to a new low and jeopardized trade. Britain’s prime minister called it a "breach of international law."

It came amid a spike in skirmishes in the eastern regions that Western powers believe Russia could use as a pretext for an attack on the western-looking democracy that has defied Moscow’s attempts to pull it back into its orbit.

In a far-reaching, pre-recorded speech, Putin justified his decision blaming NATO for the current crisis and calling the United States-led alliance an existential threat to Russia. Sweeping through more than a century of history, he painted today's Ukraine as a modern construct inextricably linked to Russia. He charged that Ukraine had inherited Russia's historic lands and after the Soviet collapse was used by the West to contain Russia.