The White Home on Tuesday mentioned it believed a Russian invasion of Ukraine might come at any time, as Press Secretary Jen Psaki warned of an 'extraordinarily harmful scenario' on the border.
Her phrases got here as Moscow bolstered the variety of troops within the area, sending an unknown variety of personnel to Belarus for main warfare video games.
Talks between the West and Russia did not ease tensions final week.
Now Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday earlier than holding talks together with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Friday within the newest try to defuse the disaster.
'Our view is that is a particularly harmful scenario,' mentioned Psaki.
'We're now at a stage the place Russia might at any level launch an assault in Ukraine, and what Secretary Blinken goes to go do is spotlight very clearly there's a diplomatic path ahead.
'It's the alternative of President Putin and the Russians to make, whether or not they will undergo extreme financial penalties or not.'
The area has been on a knife-edge because the finish of final 12 months when Moscow moved as many as 100,000 troops, in addition to tanks and missiles, near the border with Ukraine.
Intelligence officers consider that Putin has not but made up his thoughts to invade.
'He clearly is increase a drive posture there that gives him a number of choices,' mentioned Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
'It is simply troublesome to know proper now what choices he is going to decide on and we nonetheless do not consider that he is made a remaining resolution.'
Nevertheless, officers mentioned final week that Russia had deployed brokers skilled in sabotage and concrete warfare to launch a 'false-flag' assault on proxy forces, offering the pretext for invasion.
On the similar time, it has stepped up social media campaigns portraying Ukraine as aggressors.
Russia has repeatedly denied that it's planning an invasion and as an alternative demanded that NATO bar Ukraine from membership.
For his or her half, america and its allies have urged Russia to deescalate the scenario by calling again the troops amassed close to Ukraine.
Blinken on Tuesday once more urged a diplomatic decision throughout a name with Lavrov, throughout which he confused the 'unshakeable' U.S. dedication to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
UK sends weapons and 'coaching personnel' to Ukraine however Berlin BANS the planes from German airspace and repeats vow to 'do all the things to keep away from escalating the disaster'
Spokesperson Ned Value mentioned: 'The secretary confused the significance of constant a diplomatic path to de-escalate tensions surrounding the deeply troubling Russian army build-up in and close to Ukraine.
'The secretary reiterated the unshakeable U.S. dedication to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and underscored that any dialogue of European safety should embody NATO allies and European companions, together with Ukraine.'
In the meantime, Lavrov has repeated that Russia expects a written response this week from the U.S. and its allies to its request for binding ensures that NATO won't embrace Ukraine or some other ex-Soviet nations, or station its forces and weapons there.
In a doable signal that preparations for an assault proceed, a Ukrainian official mentioned some employees and their households left the Russian embassy in Kiev this month.
The official instructed the New York Occasions that wives and kids of staff started leaving on Jan. 5, and a complete of 18 individuals had left.
On the similar time, practice and street convoys of armored autos have been arriving in Belarus since president Alexander Lukashenko introduced upcoming warfare video games with Russian forces subsequent month.
Russia's Deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin mentioned the drills have been supposed to observe a joint response to exterior threats to the 2 nations.
He did not say what number of troops might be concerned within the drills, in response to the Related Press, however talked about that Russia will deploy a dozen Su-35 fighter jets and several other air protection models to Belarus.
Ukrainian officers have warned that Russia might launch an assault on Ukraine from numerous instructions, together with from its ally Belarus.
The rising fears prompted the UK to ship what it referred to as 'coaching personnel' troops and defensive weapons to Kiev.
In a transparent sign to Vladimir Putin, two Royal Air Pressure transporters flew badly-needed missile techniques to Kiev's forces. Troops have been aboard the planes and can stay in Ukraine to show their counterparts the right way to fight Russian tanks.
Officers mentioned the UK was supplying Ukraine with mild, anti-armor, defensive weapon techniques whereas a small variety of British personnel - about 100 - will present coaching on the right way to use the tools.
But there have been indicators of disunity in Europe.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was accused of sowing discord by refusing to take a tough line on Russia.
Scholz, who took the job from Angela Merkel final month, has tried to take care of his predecessor's heat relations with Moscow by refusing to provide Kiev with arms and ruling out sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gasoline line if an assault goes forward.
However the SDP chief - a socialist whereas he was a pupil - now stands accused of aiding Putin and undermining the West by creating rifts throughout the EU, NATO, and even his personal fledgling coalition over one of the best ways to discourage the Russian strongman.
The German authorities even went as far as to transient journalists on Tuesday that slicing Russia off from worldwide banking techniques - the so-called 'nuclear possibility' of sanctions - was off the desk, prompting indignant denials from Washington.
Tensions escalated on the finish of final week after American officers claimed to have data that Moscow had deployed assets for a 'false flag' assault.
White Home Press Secretary Jen Psaki warned of human rights violations and warfare crimes if diplomacy failed and the Russian authorities went forward with its plans.
'We've got data that signifies Russia has already pre-positioned a bunch of operatives to conduct a false flag operation in japanese Ukraine,' she mentioned.
'The operatives are skilled in city warfare and utilizing explosives to hold out acts of sabotage towards Russia's personal proxy forces.'
She mentioned it mimicked the playbook used when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula, and included social media disinformation to indicate Kiev because the instigator of violence.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby mentioned the intelligence was 'very credible.'
The Kremlin rapidly denied it was making ready a provocation. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned the reporting was based mostly on 'unfounded' data, in response to the TASS information company.
Even so, Ukraine's Protection Ministry mentioned it was accelerating its plan to kind reserve battalions, a transfer that might assist it quickly deploy 130,000 recruits to bolster its 246,000-strong armed forces.
Assault from a number of fronts, an escalation in Donbass or missile strikes: What a Russian invasion of Ukraine might appear like - as army analysts worry it could possibly be imminent
MISSILE STRIKES OR CYBER-ATTACK
