Hundreds of additional Canadian troops will soon be headed to eastern Europe as Ottawa moves to respond to the deployment of Russian forces into Ukraine.

During a late-afternoon news conference Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also impose new sanctions against Russia, in line with other Western democracies.

Canada is sending an additional 460 troops to reinforce the NATO military alliance in eastern Europe, Trudeau said.

Trudeau also accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of having ordered an invasion of eastern Ukraine and attacking democracy.

Yet it remained unclear what if anything the new measures announced would do to end the crisis.

Putin on Monday signed a decree recognizing the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine's eastern industrial land as independent republics.

For the past eight years, the two neighbouring regions have been engaged in a bitter conflict, which was sparked just after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.

An estimated 14,000 people have died in the fighting.

Meantime, world leaders continue to slap back with non-military actions in hopes of averting a full-blown war in Europe.

Australia this morning said it would align with the U.S. and Britain by targeting two Russian banks.

It also imposed sanctions and travel bans on eight members of Putin's Security Council.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said these are a first batch of measures in response to Russian aggression toward Ukraine.

Japan also announced sanctions, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida saying Wednesday that his government will ban new issuance and distribution of Russian government bonds in Japan.

And if Putin pushes farther into Ukraine, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg insisted, "there will be even stronger sanctions, even a higher price to pay."