British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has described the Ukraine' disaster as "probably the most harmful second" for Europe in many years.
His high diplomat on Thursday held icy talks together with her Moscow counterpart, who mentioned the Kremlin would not settle for lectures from the West.
As they spoke, Russian forces held sweeping manoeuvres north of Ukraine in Belarus, a part of a buildup of greater than 100,000 troops that has stoked Western fears of an invasion.
NATO additionally has stepped up army deployments to bolster its japanese flank, with the US sending troops to Poland and Romania. A British Royal Air Power jet carrying 350 troops landed Thursday in Poland in a transfer that adopted London sending anti-tank missiles to Ukraine to assist increase its defences.
"That is most likely probably the most harmful second, I might say in the middle of the following few days, in what's the largest safety disaster that Europe has confronted for many years, and we have got to get it proper," Mr Johnson mentioned at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Mr Johnson, who later arrived in Warsaw to fulfill with Poland's Prime Minister, mentioned he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin had not but determined what he would possibly do with Ukraine, including that the West should use "sanctions and army resolve plus diplomacy".
NATO Secretary-Common Jens Stoltenberg mentioned he despatched a letter to Russian International Minister Sergey Lavrov repeating an invite to a collection of talks on bettering European safety.
Mr Lavrov set a stern tone for his talks in Moscow with UK International Secretary Liz Truss, who once more warned Russia attacking its neighbour would "have huge penalties and carry extreme prices."
She urged the Kremlin to abide by worldwide agreements that commit it to respecting Ukraine's independence and sovereignty.
Mr Lavrov rejected Western worries in regards to the Russian troop buildup as "sheer propaganda" and famous that Moscow will not stand for lectures.
"Ideological approaches, ultimatums and moralising is a street to nowhere," he mentioned, noting that his talks with Ms Truss marked the primary assembly of the nations' high diplomats in additional than 4 years.
Russia-UK ties have been badly strained by the 2018 poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in England and different tensions.
Russia says it has no plans to invade Ukraine however desires the West to maintain Ukraine and different former Soviet nations out of NATO.
It additionally desires NATO to chorus from deploying weapons there and roll again alliance forces from Japanese Europe. The US and NATO flatly reject these calls for.
Ms Truss reaffirmed a name for Moscow to tug again its troops, whereas Mr Lavrov rejected the demand as inappropriate and pointed to British and NATO army buildups in Japanese Europe.
"The calls for to take away the Russian troops from the Russian territory trigger remorse," he mentioned.
"We do not need to threaten anybody. It is us who're dealing with threats."
Mr Lavrov alleged that Western politicians had been fanning tensions over Ukraine for home political achieve.
Russia has at all times deliberate to maneuver again its troops after the manoeuvres, Mr Lavrov mentioned, and as soon as it does, "the West will elevate an uproar and declare that it has pressured Russia to de-escalate."
"It is promoting sizzling air," he snapped.
Russia's buildup consists of deploying troops on the territory of its ally Belarus for sweeping joint drills that entered a decisive part Thursday.
The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, is about 75km south of the border with Belarus.
Ukraine's International Ministry protested Russian naval drills within the Black and Azov seas, saying they've hampered business delivery. The Kremlin responded that the workout routines are carried out in step with the worldwide maritime regulation.
Amid the West's invasion warnings, Ukrainian officers have souccght to undertaking calm, involved that fears over struggle will additional destabilise the nation's fragile economic system.
"We consider that the focus of troops close to the border is a part of psychological stress from our neighbour," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy informed a gathering of enterprise leaders.
"Now we have sufficient assets and weapons to guard our nation."
Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter battle since 2014, when a well-liked rebellion drove Ukraine's Kremlin-friendly chief from workplace.
Moscow responded by annexing Crimea after which backing a separatist insurgency in japanese Ukraine, the place combating has killed greater than 14,000 folks.
A 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany helped finish full-scale hostilities, however frequent skirmishes have continued, and efforts to barter a political settlement have stalled.
The Kremlin has accused Kyiv of sabotaging the peace settlement, and Ukrainian officers in current weeks mentioned that implementing it could harm their nation.
International coverage advisers from Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine had been holding extra talks on Thursday in Berlin to attempt to attain a standard interpretation of the 2015 settlement and plan additional steps.
The talks are a part of renewed diplomatic efforts to resolve the most important safety disaster between Russia and the West for the reason that Chilly Warfare.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met Mr Lavrov in Geneva, whereas French President Emmanuel Macron met Putin in Moscow earlier than heading to Kyiv this week.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to go to Kyiv and Moscow on February 14-15.
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He met on Monday with US President Joe Biden, who vowed that the Nord Stream 2 Russia-to-Germany gasoline pipeline could be blocked within the occasion of an invasion.
Such a transfer towards the pipeline, which has been accomplished however is not but working, would harm Russia economically but additionally trigger power provide issues for Germany.