Ukraine news – live: 8,500 troops ready to deploy as US threatens to shut down Nord Stream 2

Russian president Vladimir Putin has dispatched more than 106,000 soldiers to the country’s border with Ukraine in a show of military might ahead of what international observers fear could be an invasion.

The Independent’s Joe Sommerlad has two maps to explain Ukraine’s frought situation, the first shows its borders within continental Europe. The second details the placement of its cities in relation to the buildup of Russian troops, tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery units, which are currently clustered around the eastern front surrounding the Donbas region of Ukraine where Donetsk and Luhansk are situated.

A statement from Nato’s secretary-general on Thursday urged Russia to immediately reduce tensions across Europe with a decision to move troops out of internationally-contested areas in Crimea, Moldova, and Georgia.

Jens Stoltenberg made the comments hours before President Joe Biden would warn Ukraine’s president on a phone call that a Russian invasion was imminent and could end with Kiev being “sacked”, according to multiple news reports citing the office of Ukraine’s president.

“Russia should refrain from coercive force posturing, aggressive rhetoric, and malign activities directed against Allies and other nations,” said Mr Stoltentberg.

“Russia should also withdraw its forces from Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova, where they are deployed without these countries’ consent, and all parties should engage constructively in efforts to settle conflicts, including in the Normandy format,” he continued.

A spokesman for the Pentagon asserted on Thursday that within the past 24 hours Russian troop buildups near Ukraine including in neighbouring Belarus, which is aligned with Moscow, have continued to increase.

“We continue to see, including in the last 24 hours, more accumulation of credible combat forces arrayed by the Russians in, again, the western part of their country and in Belarus,” John Kirby said at his news briefing.

The US has not pledged military aid to Ukraine in the event of an invasion, but put more than 8,000 troops on standby for deployment to Europe should the security situation continue “deteriorating”, Mr Kirby said on Thursday.

Thursday ended with both Russia and the US continuing to posture around the issue of Ukraine while the country’s government pleads for cooler heads to prevail.

State Department spokesman Ned Price confirmed that the US would take action to stop the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if Russia invades, while the White House has continued all week to promise more damaging sanctions targeting Russian officials.

Moscow’s foreign ministry meanwhile continued to demand that Ukraine and other former members of the Soviet bloc be permanently excluded from Nato membership, which the US is not willing to do, and insisted that countries cease efforts to prepare for what many believe is an imminent Russian incursion onto Nato’s doorstep.

A spokesperson for the White House pushed back on the assertion that President Joe Biden added new urgency to his warnings of Russian aggression on Thursday during his call with Volodymyr Zelesnky, despite the Ukrainian president’s office confirming the details of news reports on the call to journalists.

According to the White House, Mr Biden reiterated that a Russian invasion was possible in February, as he has supposedly been warning for months. The spokesperson did not address whether Mr Biden had said Kiev could be “sacked”, or that he had used the phrase “prepare for impact”.

“This is not true. President Biden said that there is a distinct possibility that the Russians could invade Ukraine in February. He has previously said this publicly & we have been warning about this for months. Reports of anything more or different than that are completely false,” tweeted Emily Horne, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council.

BuzzFeed News reported on Thursday that sources in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the dire warning that Joe Biden issued to Mr Zelesnky about an imminent Russian invasion, but disagreed with his assessment of the situation.

Mr Zelensky’s call with Mr Biden on Thursday comes as the US issued a new threat to end Russia’s efforts to construct a natural gas pipeline to the European Union should an invasion occur.

A senior State Department official said on Thursday that the US was urging Chinese officials to use the influence they have in Moscow to urge Russia’s government against war with Ukraine.

“We are calling on Beijing to use its influence with Moscow to urge diplomacy, because if there is a conflict in the Ukraine it is not going to be good for China either,” said Heather Nuland, the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. “There will be a significant impact on the global economy. There will be a significant impact in the energy sphere.”

She made the comments on Thursday at a State Department news briefing.

Ukraine’s foreign minister warned pointedly on Tuesday that his country would not accept any demands unilaterally imposed by US, European or Russian negotiators and would instead insist on having a seat at the table when determining the destiny of its territories.

Volodymyr Zelensky’s government “will not allow anyone to impose any concessions on us”, his top foreign official told CNN.

“We paid a lot — including 15,000 lives of our citizens — to secure the right to decide our own future, our own destiny,” said Dmytro Kuleba.

President Joe Biden portrayed a Russian invasion as a near-certainty on a call with Ukraine’s president on Thursday, according to a top Ukrainian official.

The unnamed official in Ukraine’s government told CNN that Mr Biden warned that Russian forces may occupy Ukraine’s capital, Kyev, which the US president said could be “sacked”.

Ukraine should “prepare for impact” was Mr Biden’s advice, according to the official, who said that the US president reiterated that the US would not be sending significantly more aid to the country in the days ahead and would not use US troops to defend Ukraine’s territory.

A readout of the call released by the White House made no mention of the above prediction by the president.

The Pentagon’s chief spokesman said on Thursday that thousands of US troops were now on standby for deployment to Europe in the event of a Russian incursion, a move meant to reassure NATO allies in the region.

The troops are not meant for a defence of Ukraine, but rather to shore up NATO defensive positions around Eastern and Central Europe in the event of Russia moving closer to the doorstep of the alliance’s members.

Secretary Lloyd Austin’s decision “increases our readiness to provide forces if NATO activates the [NATO response force],” said Mr Kirby, who added that additional assets would be deployed to the region in the event of a “deteriorating security situation”.

“No decisions have been made to deploy any troops from the United States at this time,” Mr Kirby cautioned reporters, adding that “no mission” had yet been assigned to the troops involved.