AerCap Holdings, the aircraft leasing giant that is the world's largest owner of jets, lost 113 planes when Russia seized them in response to sanctions triggered by the war in Ukraine.

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The seizures of the planes and 11 jet engines by Russian authorities caused AerCap to take a $2.7 billion pre-tax charge during the quarter, causing the company to report a net loss of $2 billion rather than the $500 million profit it would have made without the hit. But company executives said the quarter was actually a good one and they see better times ahead as global demand for flying continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

"But for the impact of Russia, this is a strong underlying quarter for the company," said CEO Aengus Kelly in comments to analysts. "Across all our business lines ... we are seeing improving demand, increased utilization of our assets and the improving financial health of our customers."

Investors agreed and shares of Dublin-based AerCap gained 6% in afternoon trading following the report.

The company was able to recover 22 jets and three engines before they were seized by Russian authorities. It has filed insurance claims to seek to recover the lost aircraft, although some of those claims are with Russian insurance companies. Those policies are backed by Western re-insurance companies, but AerCap stated that "the timing and amount of any recoveries under these policies are uncertain."

The company owns a total of 1,624 aircraft, far more than owned or operated any single airline. The jets lost to Russia represented less than 5% of the net value of Aercap's fleet, which grew larger during the pandemic by purchasing rival leasing firm GECAS from General Electric.

Aercap should easily ride out the financial loss of the jets, said Richard Aboulafia, managing director with AeroDynamic Advisory. Even if the war were to end and the sanctions were to be lifted, the planes have lost their operating certificates in the eyes of Western aviation regulators.

"Once the documentation goes, there's very little point in even trying to get them back," he said.

When Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russia's air carriers were operating 861 commercial planes, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium. Just over half of those planes, with an estimated market value of $9.2 billion, were owned by non-Russian leasing companies.

Sanctions by multiple countries required international aircraft leasing companies that owned the jets to repossess them by the end of March. An estimated 79 jets were repossessed, but Russia announced it was nationalizing hundreds more.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — When you look at a map of the world, you see lines and borders.

Some are created by water, others by man, and, often, by war.

If this week has taught anyone anything, it's that just because a country's borders are drawn a certain way, it doesn't mean they will stay that way.

WEST CONDEMNS RUSSIA

"This aggression cannot go unanswered," President Joe Biden said this week from the White House.

While the President and other world leaders are hoping severe sanctions force Russia to restore the borders in Europe to where they were at the start of the week, the reality is Russia has been interested in re-drawing Ukraine for years.

After all, Ukraine used to be part of the Soviet Union.

In 2014, Russia took Crimea, a part of Ukraine.

This week began with Russia sending troops to the Donbas region.

Now, the Russian military is spread throughout the country. Many military experts agree that Ukraine could fall completely since they are not equipped to fight Russia on their own.

THE WORLD IS WATCHING

A looming question is whether the invasion inspires other world leaders to do the same thing.

It’s something being watched closely in Washington.

For example, China has long wanted to claim Taiwan, an island of 23 million people, as their own.

North Korea has long had an interest in neighboring South Korea.

Iran has also expressed interest in land around the Middle East.

President Biden's statements about war could also lead to more tensions.

He has been very clear he doesn’t want American service members fighting in Ukraine. Last year, he made clear he didn’t want Americans fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

BIDEN'S APPROACH

President Biden does believe that severe economic penalties, like the ones he has imposed on Russia, are enough to end conflicts and prevent future ones.

"America stands up to bullies,” Biden said Thursday.

He also isn't completely opposed to military action, deploying thousands of American troops to eastern Europe who are prepared to fight should the war extend beyond Ukraine's borders.

Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed the U.S. is imposing another round of sanctions against Russia on Friday.

Under these new sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will not be allowed to travel to the U.S.

The U.S. will also move to freeze the leaders' assets, the Treasury Department announced.

Psaki also added the U.S. will not be sending American troops to fight in Ukraine.

“It is not in our interest to be in a war with Russia," said Psaki during the White House briefing.

The U.S. has previously imposed sanctions on heads of state, including Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

The announcement from the U.S. comes shortly after Britain announced it plans to impose its own sanctions on Putin and Lavrov.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, “the world must make certain President Putin would fail in this act of aggression.”

Earlier on Friday, the European Union voted to go ahead with a third round of sanctions against Putin and Lavrov.

27 member states decided to freeze the assets of the two Russian leaders.

The EU has also contemplated banning Putin and Lavrov from traveling in the EU.

But European leaders have decided against it for now, saying it may complicate diplomatic moves.

WASHINGTON —

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a new round of sanctions targeting Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, charging that Russian leader Vladimir Putin “chose this war" and that his country will bear the consequences of his action.

The sanctions target Russian banks, oligarchs and high-tech sectors, Biden said. The United States and its allies will block assets of four large Russian banks, impose export controls and sanction oligarchs.

Biden also said the U.S. will be deploying additional forces to Germany to bolster NATO after the invasion of Ukraine, which is not a member of the defense organization.

The penalties fall in line with the White House’s insistence that it would look to hit Russia’s financial system and Putin's inner circle, while also imposing export controls that would aim to starve Russia’s industries and military of U.S. semiconductors and other high-tech products.

“Putin is the aggressor,” Biden said. “Putin chose this war, and now he and his country will bear the consequences."

Biden, for now, held off imposing some of the most severe sanctions, including cutting Russia out of the SWIFT payment system, which allows for the transfers of money from bank to bank around the globe, or Russia's energy sector.

Biden announced the sanctions while Ukraine’s government reported mounting casualties as Russian forces attack from the east, north and south.

Biden spoke to Americans from the White House hours after holding a virtual meeting with the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Italy and Japan. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also joined the meeting.

The president also met with his national security team on Thursday morning in the Situation Room as he looked to flesh out U.S. moves in the rapidly escalating crisis.

While Biden described the sanctions as severe, Ukrainian officials urged the U.S. and West to go further and cut the Russians from the SWIFT financial system.

“We demand the disconnection of Russia from SWIFT, the introduction of a no-fly zone over Ukraine and other effective steps to stop the aggressor,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a tweet.

The Biden administration, however, has shown some reluctance to cut Russia from SWIFT, at least immediately, because of concerns the move could also have enormous ramifications for Europe and other Western economies. Biden, answering questions from reporters, appeared to push a decision on SWIFT to European allies.

“It is always an option but right now that’s not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take,” Biden said. He also contended that the financial sanctions he announced would be more damaging to Russia.

TOKYO —

World leaders sought Wednesday to back up their tough words over Russia's aggression against Ukraine, announcing financial sanctions, trade and travel bans and other measures meant to pressure Moscow to pull back from the brink of war.

Even as they ramped up penalties, however, nations in Asia and the Pacific also prepared for the possibility of both economic pain, in the form of cuts to traditional energy and grain supply lines, and retaliation from Russian cyberattacks.

"We can't have some suggestion that Russia has some just case here that they're prosecuting. They're behaving like thugs and bullies, and they should be called out as thugs and bullies," Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said while announcing targeted financial sanctions and travel bans as a first step in response to Russian aggression toward Ukraine.

The possibility of imminent war in Ukraine has raised fears not only of massive casualties but of widespread energy shortages and global economic chaos.

The punitive actions in Asia followed sanctions levied by U.S. President Joe Biden and European leaders against Russian oligarchs and banks in response to Russia massing 150,000 troops on three sides of Ukraine. While the larger army has yet to move, Russian forces have rolled into rebel-held portions of eastern Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized those areas' independence.

In Japan, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced sanctions targeting Russia and the two separatist Ukrainian regions.

Kishida told reporters that Tokyo will ban any new issuance and distribution of Russian government bonds in Japan because of "a series of actions Russia has been taking in Ukraine."

Kishida said Japan will also stop issuing visas to people linked to the two Ukrainian rebel regions and will freeze their assets in Japan. Tokyo will also ban trade with the two areas. He said Japanese officials are finalizing further details and added that Japan could increase sanctions if the situation worsens.

Japan opened a temporary office in Lviv, in western Ukraine, to help evacuate about 120 Japanese citizens, and has arranged chartered flights in nearby countries, Kishida said.

Officials in South Korea, which relies on imports to meet nearly all fossil fuel demand, held emergency meetings Wednesday to weigh how seriously events in Ukraine would hurt their country's economy.

The fallout has so far been limited, but First Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-weon said things could worsen if the situation in Ukraine escalates and there's a "disruption of energy supply chains and an increase in market volatility."

While South Korea relies heavily on imports from Russia and Ukraine for wheat and corn, Lee said the country has enough reserves to last until June or July.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy also discussed ways to secure alternative energy supplies in case the Ukraine crisis disrupts the current methods.

U.S. officials have said an invasion is all but inevitable. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled plans for a Thursday meeting in Geneva with his Russian counterpart, saying it would not be productive and that Russia's actions indicated Moscow was not serious about a peaceful path to resolving the crisis.

More than two dozen European Union members unanimously agreed to levy their own initial set of sanctions against Russian officials. Germany also said it was halting the process of certifying the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia — a lucrative deal long sought by Moscow but criticized by the United States for increasing Europe's reliance on Russian energy.

The United States moved to cut off Russia's government from Western finance, sanctioning two of its banks and blocking it from trading its debt on American and European markets. The Biden administration's actions hit civilian leaders in Russia's leadership hierarchy and two Russian banks considered especially close to the Kremlin and Russia's military, with more than $80 billion in assets. That includes freezing all of those banks' assets under U.S. jurisdictions.

Australia's cabinet Wednesday approved sanctions and travel bans that target eight members of the Russian Security Council, and agreed to align with the United States and Britain by targeting two Russian banks.

"It's important that we play our part in the broader international community to ensure that those who are financing, profiting from an autocratic and authoritarian regime that is invading its neighbor should have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide when it comes to trying to move their money around," said Morrison, the prime minister.

Australia also warned businesses to prepare for retaliation through Russian cyberattacks.

In New Zealand, Russian Ambassador Georgii Zuev was summoned to meet with top diplomatic officials and "to hear New Zealand's strong opposition to the actions taken by Russia in recent days," said Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta in a statement. Mahuta is currently traveling abroad.

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world is facing "the biggest global peace and security crisis in recent years." He called Russia's declaration of the "so-called `independence'" of separatist areas in eastern Ukraine a violation of its territorial integrity and accused Moscow of "the perversion of the concept of peacekeeping."

He urged the international community to rally "to save the people of Ukraine and beyond from the scourge of war" without further bloodshed.

In Washington, lawmakers from both parties in Congress displayed a largely unified front backing an independent Ukraine and vowing continued U.S. support, even as some pushed for swifter and even more severe sanctions on Russia.

On Tuesday, members of Russia's upper house, the Federation Council, voted unanimously to allow Putin to use military force outside the country — effectively formalizing a Russian military deployment to the rebel regions, where an eight-year conflict has killed nearly 14,000 people.