Yet again, US President Joe Biden on Thursday said the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine was "very high" and could take place within days, despite Moscow's claim to be pulling troops from the border. The threat is "very high, because they have not moved any of their troops out. They've moved more troops in," Biden told reporters at the White House.

"We have reason to believe they're engaged in a false flag operation to have an excuse to go in."

Every indication we have is that they're prepared to go into Ukraine, attack Ukraine," he said. "My sense is it will happen in the next several days."

At the same time, Ukraine and the Russia-backed rebels in its east accused each other Thursday of intensive shelling along the line of contact in Donetsk and Luhansk.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on his way to an annual security conference in Germany, was rerouted to the United Nations to promote a diplomatic solution.

Russia is being projected as an "enemy state" to divert attention from the internal problems of Western nations, said Roman Babushkin, Charge d'Affaires of the Russian Embassy in India, on Friday amid Ukraine tensions.

As 16 February – the day when some briefings had forecast Russia would invade Ukraine – came and passed without incident, pundits in Moscow lined up for their chance to dunk on the western media.

The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, who enjoys prodding foreign media, wrote a “request to the mass disinformation outlets of the USA and Britain – Bloomberg, the New York Times, the Sun etc – announce the schedule of our ‘invasions’ for the coming year. I’d like to plan my vacation”.