Russia's defence ministry says some troops positioned on the border with Ukraine are returning to their bases after completing drills
It raises hopes that tensions could ease but military exercises continue and it's unclear how many units are being withdrawn
The head of the Nato defence alliance says he hasn't seen de-escalation yet but that signals from Moscow give some cause for optimism
President Vladimir Putin tells a news conference that Russia does not want war in Europe
UK PM Boris Johnson says there are "mixed signals" coming from Russia and that the intelligence on Ukraine "is still not encouraging"
The EU says it is willing to discuss Russia's security concerns but warns a key Russian gas pipeline to Germany would "not become operational" in the event of war
Posts from social media users along Russia's border with Ukraine have revealed some of the weapons and vehicles that have been streaming towards the frontline in recent weeks.
Video from public motorways shows lorries laden with supplies, as well as tanks, weapons and troops.
Ukraine: Social media videos show Russian military equipment on the move near border
Image source, EPAIn the last few moments, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has issued a statement hailing the strength of his own country as tensions continue to rise over the possibility of a Russian invasion.
The Ukrainian leader said he had heard US reports that Russia could invade on Wednesday, but said he would make 16 February a "day of unity".
“They are scaring us with a big war and once again giving a date for a military invasion," Mr Zelensky said in the statement.
"This is not the first time. But our state today is stronger than ever.
“We want peace and we want to resolve all issues exclusively through negotiations."
The president went on to predict that the regions of Donbass and Crimea will return to Ukrainian control by diplomatic means.
He praised Ukraine's "wonderful" army and said it is "many times stronger than eight years ago".
Mr Zelensky also said that Ukraine "wants freedom and is ready to fight for it"
On 16 February "we will hoist national flags, put on blue and yellow ribbons and show the world our unity", he concluded.
BBC Monitoring
Image source, Rossiya 1Since 2014, pro-Kremlin Russian media has accused Ukrainian forces of committing atrocities against civilians, often with evidence in short supply.
Over the weekend, flagship political news shows on Russia's state Rossiya 1 channel and Gazprom-Media's NTV aired dispatches from Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
They highlighted memorials to civilians, including children, killed in the conflict, implying that they were the victims of war crimes.
Rossiya 1's presenter Dmitry Kiselyov claimed "thousands of civilians have been tortured and savagely killed" in Donbas, and accused the West of "stubbornly ignoring the crimes of the Kyiv regime". These statements were accompanied by a caption reading: "They are preparing to kill".
A correspondent's report later showed a separatist fighter claiming that Ukrainian nationalists had threatened to "come and kill and butcher all of you”.
Notably, some of the programmes' claims were about earlier stages of the conflict and there was virtually no reporting of actual fighting going on there at the moment.
The UK is sending a "small number" of troops to Lithuania to help it with the migrant crisis on its border with Belarus, the Ministry of Defence has said.
The MoD tweeted , externalthis quote from Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.
The MoD tweeted that "in the spirit of solidarity" the UK would support Lithuania with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
"This deployment will help enhance Lithuania's ability to address pressures along its border with Belarus," it says.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe Ukrainian police are "beefing up" their security measures from today, according to police chief Ihor Klymenko.
In a Facebook post he writes that they will be in place until Saturday.
He notes that in practical terms this means implementing:
He adds that "beefed-up security arrangements by police are not another reason for panic. They are about protection and full preparedness".
Jonathan Beale
BBC defence correspondent
Western intelligence now assesses Russia has about 130,000 troops on the border with Ukraine - with the military build-up continuing.
Officials estimate 60% of Russia's total ground combat power is now massed on Ukraine's border. It includes special forces and long range precision Iskander missile systems.
Forces on exercise in Belarus have been observed moving closer to the border with Ukraine.
Russia has also "doubled" its combat air power (within range of Ukraine) and increased its naval presence in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
Western officials still say they do not believe that President Putin has made a decision to invade, but they say he could now mount large scale military operations "at the drop of a hat".
Western officials believe Russia could - in theory - mount an invasion on multiple axis. That could include a "sudden thrust" to the capital Kyiv from the north - aimed damaging the country's morale.
They could also mount operations from the east - with one possible goal of encircling Ukraine's forces. Many of Ukraine's best trained and well equipped forces have been stationed in the east of the country - close to the Donbas region.
Western officials say they are still "straining every sinew" to reach a diplomatic solution.
Image source, Getty ImagesRussia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has told President Vladimir Putin that Moscow's diplomats are finalising a 10-page response to US proposals for easing growing tensions in Ukraine.
During a carefully choreographed discussion on state television, Lavrov told the 69-year old Russian leader that the US had rejected several key Russian demands, including that Ukraine be prevented from joining Nato and a return to the organisation's pre-1997 borders.
"Of course, this cannot satisfy us," Lavrov said.
However, he told Putin that there was space for an agreement with the US to limit the deployment of intermediate-range and short-range ground-based missiles.
Such missiles were previously banned under the the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
But former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2019, citing the deployment of a new Russian cruise missile which he argued breached the treaty.
Earlier Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Ukraine's prime minister between 2014 and 2016, spoke to the BBC in Kyiv.
Yatsenyuk says time isn't running out for a diplomatic solution but it all depends on Russia's President Putin. He says if Putin really wants to wage a war he needs to realise "he'll be remembered as Adolf Hitler".
Asked what German Chancellor Olaf Scholz can bring to negotiations when he meets with Putin on Tuesday, Yatsenyuk says Scholz can't fix the problem alone but needs the western world to also help tackle it. However, he says he doesn't believe in dialogue with Putin unless it's supported by "a very strong stance - financial, economic, and military".
The former PM says people in Ukraine are nervous about what's going to happen. He says Ukraine is "the state of war", and says his country has to fight because "that's what we have done in 2013 and are ready to do in 2022".
When asked about Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky playing down the threat from Russia, Yatsenyuk says he's on "the different side of the aisle" to President Zelensky. He says he believes the situation is "very, very dangerous" and the current president needs to address the Ukrainian people in an "open and truthful manner".
Regarding Ukraine's Nato membership he says the only compromise Putin will accept is the "capitulation of Ukraine".
We're told UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Joe Biden will be speaking to each other in about half an hour.
Earlier, the PM spoke about the situation in Ukraine during a visit to Scotland, describing it as "on the edge of a precipice".
Boris Johnson called for EU to "get Nord Stream out of the bloodstream" - a reference to the new gas pipeline running from western Russia to north-eastern Germany - and explore alternatives to Russian gas to allow Western countries to impose sanctions on Russia if they invade.
You can watch some of his interview below. And there's more information about Nord Stream here.
Adam Easton
Warsaw Correspondent
Image source, Getty ImagesEight more US F-15 fighter jets arrived in Poland today to take part in Nato air policing amid continued signs of Russian escalation on Poland's border with Ukraine.
“More American F-15 fighters landed today at the base in Lask," wrote Poland's defence minister Mariusz Blaszczak on Twitter.
"Eight aircraft join those that came to Poland last week," he added.
Over the weekend, US officials said an additional 3,000 American soldiers would be sent to Poland in the coming days.
About two thirds of a first tranche of 1,700 US troops have already arrived in Poland.
While tensions in the region escalate, some Ukrainian civilians have taken up basic weapon training to defend themselves against any potential Russian invasion.
We've spoken to 78-year-old grandmother Valentina Konstantinovska from Mariupol in the south-east of the country.
She says if Russian troops invade she will resist and "will be furious."
Valentina Konstantinovska says she will resist any invasion
Jonathan Josephs
BBC business reporter
The World Bank is moving some staff out of Ukraine on a temporary basis over security concerns.
It is also suspending any deployments to the country, according to an internal memo, sent to staff over the weekend, and obtained by the BBC.
It is understood World Bank operations in Ukraine have not yet been affected and the organisation is continuing its work with remote work protocols established during the pandemic.
Since Ukraine's "Maidan revolution" of 2013-14 the World Bank has been working "to achieve a lasting economic recovery benefiting the entire population".
This has included loans and investments, including for the agriculture sector, and also two guarantees amounting to approximately US$6bn (£4.4bn) aimed at improving critical public services, supporting reforms, and bolstering the private sector.
The World Bank memo reads: "We are closely monitoring the situation on the border between Ukraine and Russia/Belarus. The World Bank Group's foremost priority is to keep our staff and their families safe.
"In line with our evacuation policy, temporary relocation of staff is underway and enhanced security measures are in place."
Image source, PA MediaWhile world leaders try to calm tensions between Ukraine and Russia, ordinary people are making hard decisions about whether to stay in Ukraine or leave.
We have spoken to Haider Ali, a 21-year-old British student from Birmingham, who is studying at Dnipro Medical Institute.
His university is about 200 miles from the Crimea border. He decided to leave after the UK Foreign Office told Britons to leave Ukraine.
Ali urges others in a similar position to do the same: "I said to my friends 'right, it's going to get a lot more expensive because when it kicks off, it will kick off quite quickly'."
Ali arrived in Gatwick on Saturday on a Ukraine International Airlines flight, one of the first commercial flights out of Kyiv. He says many of the university's British students returned home over the weekend.
He adds he's grateful he bought his plane ticket early to avoid any potential panic and is "just waiting for things to calm down before I return - if I return".
Read more here.
We've got some comments from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky now, who describes the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project as a "geopolitical weapon".
The multi-billion dollar pipeline - which will supply Russian natural gas to Germany when it begins operating- is increasingly being seen as a key bargaining chip in Western efforts to prevent a possible Russian invasion.
Speaking after meeting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday, Zelensky says there are differences between Germany and Ukraine on the issue and calls for a strategic dialogue to develop energy guarantees.
"We have certain differences in views," he says.
"I stressed that today we see Nord Stream 2 exclusively through the prism of energy and security threats to us and the region.
"We clearly understand that it is a geopolitical weapon. That is why Ukraine needs energy security guarantees."
Scholz insists no one should doubt the readiness of Germany to punish Russia if it invades Ukraine.
He adds that in the event of an attack, measures would be "very far-reaching" and would have "a significant impact on Russia's economic development opportunities".
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, PA MediaPetrol prices have hit a record high across the UK as the wider impact of tensions at the Ukraine border are felt elsewhere.
Over the weekend petrol reached 148.02p a litre, while diesel hit a new record high of 151.57p a litre last Thursday.
Prices at the pumps are driven largely by the wholesale price of energy which has risen due to concerns Russia will invade Ukraine.
If the situation in eastern Europe deteriorates further, oil and gas supplies from Russia to Europe may be interrupted, pushing up wholesale prices further.
The Petrol Retailers Association, which represents independent retailers, says it "will continue to ensure that the price of fuel is as competitive as possible".
Joel Gunter
BBC News
We've been to speaking to some of the 175 Ukrainains still living in a town made up of modular containers after fleeing their homes when war broke out with Russia in 2014.
We met Iryna Belinska, a 64-year-old grandmother of nine who lives in a unit with her husband who is unwell.
As Russia-Ukraine tensions continue to rise she tells us: "We don't talk about the escalation, or the fact we might have to flee again.
"We need a proper roof over our head, not a plastic little house," she said, gesturing to her broken ceiling and bowed floor.
"We have much more mundane things on our minds than war."
You can read the stories of other people living in the temporary units here.
Reality Check
Image source, Getty ImagesMass burial for victims of the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia in 1995
UK armed forces minister James Heappey told the BBC this morning he feared “we are closer than we’ve been on this continent [to war] for 70 years”.
Following the end of World War Two in 1945, several pacts were signed to try to avoid future conflicts on the continent.
But it’s important to remember Europe has experienced periods of war in the past 70 years.
Conflict began in the Balkans in 1991 and lasted for a decade, leading to the break-up of Yugoslavia, and engulfing Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Kosovo. These conflicts also involved a series of Nato military operations.
There have been other more recent conflicts, such as fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the South Caucasus.
Russia was also involved in a struggle with separatists in the two Chechen Wars - ending in 1996 and 2000 - in the North Caucasus region.
Jenny Hill
BBC Berlin correspondent
Image source, EPAGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz's meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky went entirely as expected.
Despite continued requests from Kyiv, there will be no lethal German weapons for Ukraine - but there will be money.
Scholz emphasised his country is the world’s largest donor of financial support to Ukraine and he vowed to accelerate some payments.
On sanctions, he said Western allies had a package of measures ready to go if Russia invaded Ukraine, but he wouldn’t be drawn on details.
To the irritation of many allies, Scholz avoids saying the words "Nord Stream 2" out loud these days, let alone promising to scrap the controversial pipeline - and he made no exception today.
One intriguing difference emerged between the two leaders at their press conference.
While Zelensky confirmed his country’s ongoing ambition to join Nato, Scholz wondered out loud at Vladimir Putin’s concern over such a scenario, given that such plans were, in his words, "not currently on the agenda".
Is this something he’ll repeat tomorrow in the Kremlin?
The UK government is "very clear there could be an imminent invasion of Ukraine", the foreign secretary says.
Speaking to broadcasters after chairing a meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee, Liz Truss warns that Russia could launch an invasion "almost immediately" and repeats calls for Britons to leave Ukraine now, while commercial routes are still available.
Truss says Russian oligarchs and companies would be targeted with "severe" sanctions if Moscow did invade - but she says the UK is still "pursuing the path of diplomacy and de-escalation".
On the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany, Truss says Germany has been "very clear" this would not go ahead if Russia invades.
US President Joe Biden has said the pipeline, which has been built but is not yet operating, would be stopped if there was an invasion but German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been less explicit about the situation.
Asked about her tense meeting with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week, Truss says: "Of course the Russians didn't like what I had to say - but I say it nevertheless and I want them to desist and I want them to be aware there will be severe costs to an invasion."
Image source, Getty ImagesVyacheslav Nikonov, from the Russian State Duma committee on international affairs, tells the BBC there is "nothing special" about Russian military exercises near Ukraine.
Asked about Moscow's large military build-up, Nikonov says information about Russian troops gathering on the border is "from Western sources so you must know better".
He insists: "Russian exercises are standard, regular, and there is nothing special about it."
Questioned on if there was a parallel between the crisis now and World War Two, Nikonov - whose grandfather Vyacheslav Molotov was Soviet foreign minister during WW2 and concluded the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany - says Nato approaching Russian borders "seems very much the same, like Hitler, that's how it looks to us".
He adds that Russia does not want a repeat of World War Two and that "Russians do not start wars, Russians finish wars".