The United States has told the United Nations it has credible information about the possibility of serious human rights violations should Russia invade Ukraine.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have agreed in principle to meet, after French President Emmanuel Macron pitched a summit.
Here are all the latest updates:
Germany’s Scholz to hold telephone talks with Putin
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will speak with Putin by telephone later today in a further effort to ease tensions, a spokesman for Germany’s government spokesman says.
Steffen Hebestreit said the planned call “this afternoon” had been “closely coordinated” with Macron, who spoke to Putin on Sunday.
He said the talks were part of “joint diplomatic efforts” by the West to “prevent a catastrophe” in Ukraine.
‘No one can resolve our issue without us’
Ukraine’s top security official has said his country welcomes the possibility of a summit between Biden and Putin but also warned that nothing can be solved without Kyiv’s involvement.
“No one can resolve our issue without us,” Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told a news briefing. “Everything should happen with our participation.”
Moscow claims Ukrainian shell has destroyed a border facility
Moscow says a shell fired from Ukraine has destroyed a border facility used by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
The security service said in a statement that the “unidentified projectile” had flattened the facility located about 150 metres from Russia’s border with Ukraine, in the country’s southwestern Rostov region.
The statement added that no one had been injured in the incident and that Russian military engineers had arrived at the scene. Video released by the FSB showed a small, apparently one-room building with its roof and walls caved in and a Russian flag leaning against strewn debris.
Al Jazeera could not independently verify the claim.
Kyiv has battled Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since they seized a swath of territory in the region in early 2014 [File: Vadim Ghirda/AP]
Satellite images show new military movements by Russia
As diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions around Ukrainian continue, satellite images show new field deployments of armoured equipment and troops from Russian garrisons.
Read more here.
Ukraine-Russia crisis: What is the Minsk agreement?
Macron has pointed to the 2015 Minsk Agreement between Kyiv and Moscow as the blueprint for a breakthrough in the Ukraine crisis.
The Minsk II deal, named after the Belarusian capital where it was settled, was aimed at ending the war in eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv has battled Russian-backed separatists since they seized a swath of territory in the region in early 2014.
But the agreement, which came on the back of Minsk I, an earlier failed attempt at a ceasefire pact, was never fully implemented. Years on, there has been no full political settlement and the deadly fighting in Donbas continues.
Click here to read more.
Ukraine’s military reports scores of ceasefire violations
Ukraine’s military says there have been 80 ceasefire violations by Russian-backed forces in conflict hit-eastern Ukraine within the past 24 hours.
The Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said in a statement that one soldier had been injured during an instance of shelling on Sunday which was in violation of the Minsk agreement.
“The occupation forces continue to cowardly shell positions of Ukrainian defenders from behind the civilian settlements, hiding behind civilians as behind a human shield,” JFO spokesman Pavlo Kovalchyuk said.
The JFO added there had been 94 instances of shelling on civilian settlements in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions over the previous five days, injuring two people as well as damaging 44 homes and four schools.
Russia says 60,000 ‘refugees’ have crossed from rebel-held eastern Ukraine: Report
Russia’s emergencies ministry has said more than 60,000 “refugees” from the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics in eastern Ukraine have crossed into Russia following evacuation orders issued by the territories’ separatist authorities last week, the RIA Novosti news agency reports.
Separatists allege one ‘serviceman’ killed
Moscow-backed separatists in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) have alleged in a statement released to Russian news agencies that a local “serviceman” has been killed during an attack on the breakaway region by Ukrainian forces.
Al Jazeera could not independently verify the claim, which comes after multiple warnings by top Western officials that Russia could attempt to manufacture a “pretext” for invading Ukraine.
Firm agreement on Biden-Putin meet ‘a long way away’
Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Moscow, says Putin and Biden are “a long way away” from reaching a firm agreement on holding discussions.
“It is going to be up to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his meeting with his American counterpart, Antony Blinken, on Thursday whether or not Putin and the US president will meet,” she said.
“I think the Russians are going to be very clear that in order for that meeting [between Putin and Biden] to take place, the US president has to be willing to discuss Russia’s security concerns – that NATO does not expand any further eastwards and that there is no military equipment in NATO countries around Russia.”
Putin has accused Western powers of ignoring Russia’s main security concerns [File: Thibault Camus/Pool via Reuters]
No firm plans yet for Putin-Biden talks, Kremlin says
The Kremlin has said Putin and Biden could set up a call or meeting any time but there were no concrete plans yet for a summit.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that although tensions were growing, diplomatic contacts were active.
But he dismissed reports that Russia had drawn up a list of Ukrainians to capture or kill after any invasion were an “absolute lie”. He also described as “highly unusual” a US embassy warning to Americans in Russia that they should prepare plans to leave the country if necessary.
The security alert cited media sources as saying there had been threats of attacks against shopping centres, railway and metro stations and other public places, including in Moscow, St Petersburg and areas near the Russia-Ukraine border.
DPR separatists claim they are in a shoot-out with Ukrainian ‘sabotage’ group
Pro-Russian separatists have claimed they are engaged in a shoot-out with a Ukrainian “sabotage” group that entered the DPR earlier today.
The breakaway territory’s state security ministry alleged in a statement that the Ukrainians blew up an artillery and ammunition storage.
Al Jazeera could not independently verify the rebels’ claims, which come after multiple warnings by top Western officials that Russia could attempt to manufacture a “pretext” for invading Ukraine.
Kyiv says it hopes Biden and Putin meet will materialise
Ukraine hopes the proposed summit between Biden and Putin can be implemented and that Kyiv can join the meeting, Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov says.
“I have hopes that this initiative, thanks to President Macron and supported by President Biden … will be implemented,” Reznikov told a news briefing.
France sees ‘diplomatic hope’ to resolve Ukraine crisis
France’s foreign minister says Paris sees a chance to resolve the Ukraine crisis after Biden and Putin accepted, in principle, to hold a summit.
“There is a diplomatic hope that was revived by the president” with the summit proposal, Clement Beaune told LCI TV, referring to Macron.
“If there is still a chance to avoid war, to avoid a confrontation and build a political and diplomatic solution, then we need to take it,” he added.
‘Don’t play with human lives,’ German minister tells Moscow
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has accused Russia of playing an “irresponsible” game with the civilian population of eastern Ukraine and urged it to return to the negotiating table.
Sporadic shelling across the line dividing Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the east has intensified since Thursday.
“I urgently call on the Russian government, on the Russian president: don’t play with human lives,” Baerbock told reporters after arriving for a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels.
“What we have seen over the last 72 hours in terms of attacks, violent disputes is really concerning,” she added. “The responsibility lies with the Russian government which is why I call urgently on the Russian government: come back to the negotiating table. It is in your hands.”
Russian troops to return when ‘objective need’ arises, says Belarus
Russian armed forces will return to their permanent bases when an “objective need” to do so arises, the Belarusian defence ministry has said, a day after announcing joint military drills with Russia would be extended.
The ministry said the troop withdrawal would depend to a large extent on a pullback of NATO forces from near the borders of Belarus and Russia.
Who are the Russia-backed separatists?
Since fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014, separatist rebels of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics have been accused of being proxies for Russian interests, if not simply Russian soldiers in disguise.
But who exactly are the rebels in the statelets known as the DPR and LPR, home to 2.3 million and 1.5 million people respectively?
Read more here.
EU supports further talks between US and Russia on Ukraine
The EU supports the latest attempt to arrange further talks between Washington and Moscow to find a diplomatic solution, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says.
“Summit meetings, at the level of leaders, at the level of ministers, whatever format, whatever way of talking and sitting at the table and trying to avoid a war, is badly needed,” Borrell told reporters in Brussels before a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
“We will support anything that can make diplomatic conversations the best way, the only way to look for a solution to the crisis,” he added.
Russia has lists of Ukrainians ‘to be killed or sent to camps’
The US has warned the UN it has “credible information” that Russia has lists of Ukrainians “to be killed or sent to camps” in the event of an invasion, according to a letter sent to the UN rights chief.
The letter, which came as Washington warned of an imminent invasion by Russian troops massed near the Ukrainian border, said the US is “deeply concerned” and warned of a potential “human rights catastrophe”.
Biden agrees to Ukraine summit
Macron says Biden and Putin have agreed to a summit over Ukraine, offering a possible path out of one of the most dangerous European crises in decades.
Macron’s office said in a statement the French president had pitched to both leaders a summit on “security and strategic stability in Europe”.
A White House statement said Biden had accepted the meeting “in principle” but only “if an invasion hasn’t happened”.
‘Confidence-building measures’ in place to reassure Putin
PJ Crowley, former US assistant secretary of state, has said the West is working hard to simultaneously prevent a Russian invasion as well as to put something on the table that will deter Putin from sending his troops across the border.
“I think it is useful for Western leaders to continue to try to say: ‘If not this then what else could we help you with?’ to try to convince [Putin] that what’s happening in Ukraine and western Ukraine does not pose a threat to Russia,” Crowley told Al Jazeera.
“There have been constructive discussions about resurrecting treaties that have elapsed and other confidence-building measures, [and] transparency in terms of operations on NATO territory,” he added.
“At the end of the day, this is a crisis that Putin has created. He has assembled a formidable military force surrounding Ukraine and it will be his decision as to whether he carries out the invasion or not.”
Ukrainian crisis tops EU meet agenda
The Russian threat against Ukraine will be at the top of the agenda in a gathering of EU foreign ministers later today in Brussels.
The bloc has warned it will impose sweeping sanctions on Moscow should it launch an attack, echoing threats made by the US and former member state, the United Kingdom.
