There is no sign of de-escalation of tension and invasion of Ukraine could come at any time after Russia expelled the number two US diplomat in Moscow before US President Joe Biden said the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine was “very high”.

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.”

Biden said he had not yet read a new, written response from Russian President Vladimir Putin to US proposals for a diplomatic way out of the impasse.

Biden said there is still “a diplomatic path” and that Secretary of State Antony Blinken would “lay out what that path is” in a speech at the United Nations. However, Biden said “I’ve no plans to call to Putin.” “We can confirm that Russia expelled US Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) to Russia Bart Gorman,” a State Department spokesperson said.

“Russia’s action against our DCM was unprovoked and we consider this an escalatory step and are considering our response,” the spokesperson said.

“Now more than ever, it is critical that our countries have the necessary diplomatic personnel in place to facilitate communication between our governments,” the official said.

In another report, the US envoy to the United Nations warned Russia is still moving toward an “imminent invasion” of Ukraine, ahead of what is expected to be a heated meeting of the Security Council on the ongoing crisis.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken to attend the Council meeting on Ukraine on “to signal our intense commitment to diplomacy.”

“Our goal is to convey the gravity of the situation. The evidence on the ground is that Russia is moving toward an imminent invasion. This is a crucial moment,” she tweeted.

Blinken, on his way to a security conference in Munich later this week, would appear at the UN to “to offer and emphasise the path toward de-escalation, and to make it clear to the world that we are doing everything we can to prevent war,” she continued.

-Russia will respond-

Russia announced it could respond militarily if Washington does not meet its security demands and said it wanted all US troops out of Eastern and Central Europe.

“In the absence of will on the American side to negotiate firm and legally binding guarantees on our security from the United States and its allies, Russia will be forced to respond, including with military-technical measures,” the foreign ministry said.

The statement is the latest in a back-and-forth between Russia and the West that started in December when Moscow put forward sweeping security demands to Washington and Nato.

The United States handed back a response rejecting key Russian demands, including a ban on Ukraine joining Nato and clauses limiting Western influence in Eastern Europe and former Soviet states.

In its formal follow up Thursday Russia also said it insists “on the withdrawal of all US armed forces in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Baltics”.

Thursday’s statement comes as the United States and its allies say Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops on the border with Ukraine and Moscow-annexed Crimea, raising concerns of a possible attack. In the document, Russia also said that it has no plans to invade Ukraine, contradicting US claims that an attack could come at any moment.

“There is no ‘Russian invasion’ of Ukraine, which the United States and its allies have been announcing officially since last fall, and it is not planned,” the foreign ministry said in a public statement.

US President Joe Biden on Thursday said the threat of a Russian invasion was “very high,” even though Moscow in recent days has announced several troop drawdowns from Ukaine and Crimea.

Moscow this week announced that it was moving back some troops from Ukraine’s border but Western leaders have said there is no evidence of a drawdown.

In another report, a senior State Department official said the US had watched with growing alarm as Russia claimed to be de-escalating Wednesday, but in fact appeared to be escalating.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to reporters, said the situation bore a resemblance to the phase that preceded Moscow’s incursion into Georgia in 2008.

Russia’s military has surrounded much of Ukraine’s borders as part of a bid to overturn the country’s Western-orientated policies, including the longterm goal of joining Nato.

Russia in recent days has announced several drawdowns of troops from Ukraine’s borders, raising hopes that a devastating military escalation in Ukraine can be averted.

The West however says there has been no meaningful reduction in the assembled Russian force that has been at the centre of escalating tensions between Moscow and the West for weeks.

Since December, Moscow has been running large-scale land, air and naval war games near Ukrainian territory in Russia and its ally Belarus.

It has a large number of forces concentrated in Russian territory, in Moscow-annexed Crimea, in Belarus and in the Black Sea — that is, on Ukraine’s eastern, northern and southern borders. But Russia has not said how many troops are involved.

The only data put forward has been from Western countries based mainly on satellite imagery.

Nato estimated the troop deployment at “well over 100,000” Russian soldiers, while US President Joe Biden recently said the figure was “more than 150,000”.

Russia has also sent heavy equipment, including tanks, missiles and air defence systems to the drills.

Unlike a similar deployment in the spring of 2021, Russia has, according to third-party sources, deployed medical teams and transported large fuel reserves.

Most of the on-the-ground images available come from witnesses who in recent weeks have posted on social media photos of columns of tanks parked in border villages and trains loaded with military equipment.

Russian military expert Pavel Felgenhauer said he believed Moscow had indeed “made a decision to withdraw”, but that it could take weeks.  “It will take more than a month to go from ultra-high combat readiness to return to a peaceful state,” he told AFP.

At the same time, Felgenhauer did not rule out the possibility that Moscow’s pullback wasn’t real. “It’s possible that Russia’s announcements on the withdrawal of troops are misleading to disorientate Natoo and the US, to create a strategic surprise,” he said.

The West, led by Washington, continues to announce that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could come at any time.

Russia denies it plans to attack Ukraine but it is worried that Ukraine — once part of the Soviet Union — could one day join Nato.

Moscow has strived to present its military drills as routine exercises. But the deployment of units normally stationed in the Russian Far East to Ukraine’s borders has looked threatening.

Their return to their garrisons, some up to 8,000 kilometres away, would be a reassuring sign.

A return to peace talks on the conflict between Kyiv forces and pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine would also be a sign of de-escalation.

But the Russian parliament this week asked President Vladimir Putin to recognise the independence of Ukraine’s pro-Moscow rebel territories, worrying the West.

Kyiv was also targeted this week by a new cyberattack that hit the defence ministry and army. Kyiv blamed Moscow, while the Kremlin denies involvement.

Military experts believed that a Russian military offensive could be preceded by massive cyberattacks.

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