The UK and US have more accurate intelligence on troops at the Ukrainain border than Russia realises, the former head of the Royal Navy says.

Admiral Lord West, former First Sea Lord, tells Times Radio: "With the capabilities we and the Americans have got in terms of satellites, GCHQ and NSA, we know, actually very accurately, what's going on, I think more accurately sometimes than the Russians realise."

He says comments by UK Armed Forces Minister James Heappey - who said Russia is not withdrawing troops from the border - will be accurate.

Responding to comments by a former adviser to Vladimir Putin, who said the West does not really listen to Russia unless it starts putting tanks and soldiers on the ground, Lord West says the UK was not "paying attention" to the importance of keeping a dialogue with Russia following the Cold War.

Image source, Reuters

Ukraine and Russia-backed rebels have accused each other of violating a truce agreement by opening fire in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

The rebels said several locations under their control were shelled by Ukrainian troops in the past 24 hours, as Kyiv was attempting "to escalate the conflict".

Ukraine's forces said they were abiding by all the agreements, accusing the rebels of shelling the town of Stanytsia Luhanska "with special cynicism" and injuring two civilians.

There has been no independent verification of these claims.

The rebels have seized large swathes of Donbas since the fighting started in 2014. An estimated 14,000 people - including many civilians - have died.

If you're just joining us, here's the UK Armed Forces Minister James Heappey telling BBC Breakfast we are seeing the opposite of Russia's claims that it is pulling forces back from the Ukrainian border.

He says: "All of the conditions are set for things to happen very quickly indeed."

A senior US official has said , externalMoscow's claim it's withdrawing troops from the border with Ukraine is "false".

Speaking to journalists at the White House yesterday evening, the official warned that as many as 7,000 more Russian troops have been deployed to the border region in the past few days, with new arrivals continuing into Wednesday.

Moscow "could launch a false pretext at any moment to justify an invasion of Ukraine," the senior Biden administration official said.

"That false pretext could take a number of different forms: a provocation in the Donbas, a claim about NATO activity by land, at sea, or in the air; an incursion into Russian territory".

"We don’t know what form the false pretext will take, but we hope the world is ready."

Image source, Russian Defence Ministry

Russia's tank army units from the Western Military District have started returning to their permanent bases after "the completion of planned exercises on training grounds", the Russian defence ministry said in a statement on Thursday morning.

It said tanks and armoured tracked vehicles were being transported by rail over about 1,000km (620 miles).

The ministry provided no details about where the training grounds were located, and where the troops were now returning.

Russia earlier said that some units of the Southern and Western military districts had "already begun loading on to rail and road transport and began moving to their military garrisons".

Armed Forces Minister James Heappey says he still has hopes that diplomatic talks could succeed in preventing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

He says: "The problem is that part of the diplomatic process is to see Russian de-escalation and what we’ve heard is talk of de-escalation and we’ve seen the opposite."

Asked if fighting is inevitable, Heappey tells BBC Breakfast he draws a distinction between imminent and inevitability.

"I think the urgency with which I and other colleagues have briefed on your programmes is a reflection of the fact that all of the conditions are set, and that the moment President Putin takes the decision it is literally just a matter of minutes before military effect could be felt in Ukrainian cities," he says.

But that's different to inevitability, he adds.

"I have a gut feeling because I'm seeing what I'm seeing and I don't think you spend that amount of money inputting that number of troops and planes and ships into an area unless you mean it, but I have hope that a diplomatic process can succeed, because the consequences of that not being the case are that tens of thousands of people could die."

Image source, EPA

More now on the UK Foreign Secretary's comments this morning in the Daily Telegraph where she calls the crisis a "litmus test" for Nato.

"We must not be lulled into a false sense of security by Russia claiming that some troops are returning to their barracks," Liz Truss writes.

"There is currently no evidence the Russians are withdrawing from border regions near Ukraine."

Truss, who will be travelling to Poland and Ukraine later today, says Russian claims of withdrawal cannot be taken at face value.

"Russia could drag this out much longer in a brazen ploy to spend weeks more – if not months – subverting Ukraine and challenging Western unity," she says.

Image source, EPA/RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY

Our coverage kicks off with interviews with Armed Forces Minister James Heappey who says he is seeing the opposite of Russia’s de-escalation claims.

Moscow says it is moving troops away from the Ukrainian border after completing military exercises. It says claims by the West that Russia could be preparing to invade Ukraine are “hype”.

Heappey tells BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Worryingly what we’ve seen over the last 48 hours is not the reversal that has been announced in Moscow but instead troops continuing to move towards the Ukrainian border”.

He says thousands more Russian soldiers “are moving towards Ukraine instead of away from it”.

“I fear that it is a disinformation campaign when we are seeing apparent footage of Russian troops moving away from the border because all of our indicators suggest that the build up and preparations continue,” he says.

Thank you for joining us for live coverage of the Ukraine crisis. Here are the latest developments.

• UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is warning the West should not be fooled by Russia's claims it is pulling forces away from Ukraine
• UK armed forces minister James Heappey says he fears Russian footage apparently showing troops retreating is disinformation
• Moscow denies invasion plans and says some of the 100,000 troops amassed at the border are leaving having completed military exercises
• But a senior US official calls this claim "false" and says 7,000 extra Russian troops have arrived at Ukraine's borders in recent days
• The official also said Moscow could launch a "false" pretext to invade Ukraine "at any moment"
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he is yet to see any withdrawal of Russian troops
• Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also says there are no signs Russian forces are de-escalating