By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Gold was up on Thursday morning in Asia, hitting a near nine-month high earlier in the week. Following Ukraine’s declaration of a state emergency, many investors turned toward safe-haven investments.

They were at $1,671.75 (11:03 ET) (5:03 GMT) an increase of 0.66% Their high point was reached in June. 1/2021 or $1913.89 on Tuesday.

Separatists in Ukraine’s Donbass (Donbas) requested Russian help in repelling “aggression” on Wednesday. Ukraine responded with a declaration of compulsory military service, and declaring a state emergency.

In turn, the West imposed sanctions against Russia. German sanctions against Russia were also imposed by the U.S. on Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which links Germany and Russia.

After the European Union banned Russian legislators by freezing their assets, and prohibiting travel, more than 3 percent of Russian rouble fell. The Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a military operation to help Ukraine’s eastern region earlier that day, causing global shares to plummet.

Asia Pacific saw its interest rate remain at 1.25%, as the policy committee had already made its decision.

Other precious metals: Palladium was unchanged at $2,483.51, a close six-month peak reached on Wednesday.

Russia is third in the world’s largest producer of gold. Nornickel, a significant producer both of palladium as well as platinum is also an important producer. Russia produced nearly 2.6million troy ounces palladium, or 40% of world mine production. The country also produced 6411,000 ounces platinum, which is 10% of the total mine production.

The silver and platinum prices rose by 0.1%