Boris Johnson then takes his turn to speak. He says that when "Poland is threatened, we are all threatened".

That's why, he says, 350 more British troops have touched down in Poland to stand "shoulder to shoulder" with their Polish counterparts.

"We need to work together now to achieve de-escalation," he says.

Johnson says it is important to remember why "we are doing this" and putting together a package of sanctions.

"We won't accept a world in which a powerful neighbour can bully or attack their neighbours," he adds.

He finishes by saying that it is more than 80 years since Polish pilots came to his constituency of Uxbridge and West Ruislip to help in the fight for our freedom - referring to World War Two.

"We stood side by side to uphold our values and principles then, and we stand side by side today," he concludes.

The joint press conference between Boris Johnson and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is under way in Warsaw.

Morwiecki begins by thanking Johnson and the UK for its support and solidarity amid tensions with Russia, including for sending troops to Poland.

He says that we live in "fragile times".

The pair will be going to visit some of the Polish and British troops later, he adds.

He says that some European leaders have been geopolitically "napping" but says that Johnson and himself have not been.

We've just heard from the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK.

Vadym Prystaiko tells BBC Radio 4's The World at One, if Russia listens to what the rest of the world is saying, they can “defuse the situation”.

Prystaiko praises the work of UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and the fact she was prepared to say “tough things” to Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

Image source, EPA

BBC Monitoring

Image source, Reuters

Russia is continuing to amass troops and hardware a few dozen miles from the Ukrainian border, according to Kirill Mikhailov, an investigative reporter with the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT).

He told Ukraine's Hromadske radio that equipment, including Iskander missile systems, was moved from Siberia to Russia's Bryansk region in April, and is now located near Ukraine's Chernihiv region.

Troops, including Russian National Guard units, have also been seen gathering near Ukraine, he said.

Mikhailov added: "According to our observations, one or two more weeks are necessary to complete possible preparations for a potential large-scale invasion."

Image source, Reuters

Boris Johnson has arrived in Warsaw and has been taken by motorcade to the chancellery of the Polish prime minister.

The UK prime minister is due to receive an official welcome from his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki.

They will then hold talks about tensions with Russia before giving statements to the press in Poland's capital.

After that, they'll travel to a military base to meet Nato armed forces, including UK troops.

Image source, Reuters

We've got some comments on the Ukraine crisis now from Conservative former prime minister Sir John Major.

In a speech to the Institute for Government think tank on Thursday, he warns the UK's "weight" in the international community is "not as strong as it was or as we would wish it to be" and that it would "typically" have been the UK PM, not the president of France, sitting across the table from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Major - who was in office from 1990 to 1997 - compares Boris Johnson's "brief conversation" with Putin to Emmanuel Macron's "five-hour meeting across the desk" from the Russian president, saying the longer meeting granted to France would "typically" have been the UK's.

He says in previous years when there was discussion over Russia, it would have been the UK foreign secretary leading the talks.

Major has previously criticised Johnson over his handling of Brexit and called the government "politically corrupt" in its treatment of the House of Commons.

Andrew Wood, the UK ambassador to Russia between 1995 and 2000, spoke to the BBC earlier.

Asked for his assessment on the prospect of war between Russia and Ukraine, Wood says it depends on Putin's "emotional disposition" on the issue.

"He has a choice to make on getting into a worse mess with a possible military success or backing down.

"The discussion so far here has been about Nato-Russia...but the real context is whether he [Putin] can conquer Ukraine or bring it under submission very quickly."

If Putin were to back down from any possible military action, Wood believes he would have to come up with an "excuse" to save face - such as negotiating new security arrangements with Nato.

Earlier, we heard that a new UK law to "toughen and expand" sanctions against Russia would be in place by the end of today.

It was a deadline promised by UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

But Labour has questioned why MPs had not been given a chance to scrutinise the proposals as the deadline rolled around.

Labour MP Chris Bryant told the Commons: "It's completely autocratic for government to publish legislation without any opportunity for anybody to scrutinise it, and frankly they have just been lazy.

"We're Johnny-come-latelies when it comes to sanctions in this area."

Foreign Office minister James Cleverly said he understood the "frustration", adding that the government's actions had been "in all stages calibrated to deter Russian aggression and to act in concert and collaboration with our international partners".

BBC Monitoring

Here's some more from Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who met UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss this morning.

He says Moscow may evacuate non-essential embassy staff from the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, because "Anglo-Saxons may be preparing something" in Ukraine.

Last month, the UK issued advice against non-essential travel to Ukraine, warning of a probable "rapid unfolding of events".

Lavrov referred to "all this sobbing and wailing when embassy staff are evacuated" and "citizens of Anglo-Saxon countries are being urged to leave Ukraine as soon as possible".

"We are already wondering ourselves - maybe it is the Anglo-Saxons who are preparing something if they are evacuating their employees," he said.

"We have looked at their actions and will probably also advise non-essential personnel of our diplomatic institutions to go home for a while."

Image source, TASS/Getty

At least 720,000 people in Ukraine's rebel-held eastern regions have now taken Russian citizenship, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency says.

Russia's offer of citizenship is alarming the Ukrainian government which wants international monitors to report on it.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba asked the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to investigate, saying Russia's "passportisation" of Ukrainian citizens was a "very painful subject".

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in April 2019 allowing people in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions to take Russian citizenship on a fast-track basis for "humanitarian" reasons.

One fear in Ukraine is that Russia may use its new citizens in the conflict zone as a pretext for a military intervention.

Russia-UK relations as cold as everpublished at 12:12 Greenwich Mean Time 10 February 2022

12:12 GMT 10 February 2022

James Landale
Diplomatic correspondent

On the basis of this morning’s news conference in Moscow, relations between Russia and Britain remain as cold as ever.

The exchanges began slowly. Sergei Lavrov began with a gentle recitation of Russia’s demands and said the talks had improved the UK’s understanding of those demands.

Liz Truss responded by rejecting Russia’s core argument, namely that its security is somehow threatened by Nato expansion and the possibility of Ukraine joining the military alliance. “That is just not true,” she said.

She accused Russia of using aggression to try to “relitigate the past” in a way that was undermining its international standing. This lit Mr Lavrov’s fuse and he hit back.

The talks had been “disappointing”, he said, adding that it was as if the two sides were listening but not hearing. He accused the UK and the West of “hysteria” that was destabilising Ukraine. The West was demanding guarantees from Russia but offering none back in what he described as a “one sided dialogue”.

On Mr Lavrov went: "Russia has been cheated and wronged for many years."

Ms Truss responded robustly: Russia’s 100,000 troops were threatening Ukraine, she said, Russia needed to abide by agreements it had signed not to do so, and it needed to implement a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.

Mr Lavrov responded, again at length: Nato had promised not to expand but it had - the alliance had a history of being aggressive and cited the former Yugoslavia and Iraq as an example. He also compared the Ukrainian President Zelensky to the Nazi propagandist, Joseph Goebbels.

So diplomacy took place, messages were delivered and received. But there appeared little progress - and no warming of the frosty ground dividing Britain and Russia.

This graphic shows the sheer scale of the Russian military deployment around Ukraine's borders.

The number of troops involved is now estimated to be as many as 130,000 and the exercises in Belarus mean they surround Ukraine on three sides.

One area where they are gathering is Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine back in 2014, and another concentration is on the border with Donetsk and Luhansk, two Ukrainian regions which are largely under the control of Russian-backed rebels.

So is Russia really planning to invade? Read our analysis.

Image source, EPA

As tensions continue to rise, Russia's defence ministry has released pictures of its military aircraft taking part in exercises over Belarus.

The two countries - which have close relations - have started 10 days of joint military drills in the midst of ongoing fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The US has called the drills, believed to be Russia's biggest deployment to Belarus since the Cold War, an "escalatory" move.

Belarus borders Ukraine and from the border, it's less than 150 miles to Kyiv.

Image source, PA Media

If you are just joining us, here's a reminder of what's been happening on a busy morning across Europe.

PM in Europe

Boris Johnson is on his way to Poland having given a news conference with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, after talks in Brussels. The PM warned that tensions between Russia and Ukraine were at "the most dangerous moment" - and he added that war would be an "absolute disaster".

Truss in Moscow

In Moscow, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss met her Russian equivalent, Sergei Lavrov, and told him to end the "Cold War rhetoric". She warned that continued "aggression" would lead to "severe consequences". But Lavrov said it was Russia that was being threatened - adding that there was "a lot of hysteria in the West".

Why is this happening now?

The diplomatic push comes as around 130,000 Russian troops are massed near the border with Ukraine, amid fears in Europe that Russia could be preparing to invade. Russia and Belarus have started 10 days of joint military drills, something France described as a "violent gesture".

What might happen next?

It is still unclear what the next move may be. Russia has denied plans to invade, and Johnson said that he did not believe a decision had been made in the Kremlin. Back in the UK, the government said it will bring forward legislation to put sanctions on Russia if it does invade Ukraine.

Image source, HoC

Back in the UK, Foreign Office minister James Cleverly has been updating MPs on the introduction of sanctions on Russia.

He told the House of Commons that preparations which will allow the UK to "toughen and expand" its sanctions against Russia will come into force "this afternoon".

This will "significantly broaden the range of people, businesses and other entities" that can be sanctioned in response to any further Russian aggression, he said.

Cleverly was speaking after Labour questioned why no sanctions legislation had been tabled.

Here's UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss addressing her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, over the situation in Ukraine...

Petr Kozlov
BBC Russian, Moscow

Image source, Reuters

Since 2014 when the West introduced sanctions against Moscow, following the annexation of Crimea, Russians became used to their country being involved in diplomatic battles - and to following those battles on TV.

Those Russians who get their news fix from state TV, filled with the Kremlin’s messages, are certain that their country is fighting a good fight and is simply defending its interests.

They are told that Russia is encircled by enemies who are getting closer to its borders (through Nato) and they can’t help being alarmed. State TV also claims there are enemies within - agents of the West. Independent journalists, NGOs and opposition politicians are all being targeted.

There is also another kind of Russian. There are far fewer of them, but they try to get their information from a variety of sources. They can see how international tension is negatively affecting their lives with the threat of new sanctions and an even more palpable threat of fewer freedoms inside Russia.

At the same time, according to an independent opinion poll, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings have now reached 69% - a six-month high. Analysts say this is down to a patriotic surge.

And finally, here's more from Liz Truss, from the news conference that's just concluded.

While she wanted to work towards a better outcome, she said it was “vitally important that the UK and its Nato allies are prepared for all eventualities”.

The UK foreign secretary added that the UK was providing defensive support to Ukraine, working to “strengthen support across Nato” and putting in much tougher legislation on sanctions against Russia.

But she said her purpose in Moscow was to "work with Russia".

Image source, Reuters

There's been a lot going on in the past hour - and the Lavrov-Truss news conference has now finished.

Asked if he had seen any concessions with regard to Russia's concerns about Nato, Sergei Lavrov said he had only heard a demand to "remove Russian troops from Russian territory".

He said there was a legitimate need for Nato during the Cold War but the alliance's actions during the wars in Yugoslavia and Iraq were not defensive.

And he accused the UK of making allegations about the poisoning of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny (in Russia) and former Russian spy Sergei Skripal (in the English city of Salisbury) without offering evidence.

Meanwhile, as the UK prime minister flies to Poland, the Truss-Lavrov news conference in Moscow continues.

Lavrov says Russian troops will return to their bases after the exercises in Belarus.

And he suggests it is not Russia that has escalated tensions, but the West.

"You ignore all of our statements," he says. "It seems that Russia does not have the same rights in the international arena as the UK."

He also suggests that Western politicians are using Ukraine as a "crutch" to "improve their ratings".