Jessica Parker
BBC Brussels correspondent

Ukraine’s foreign minister has told reporters that the EU has agreed to provide some “advisory” military training.

Dmytro Kuleba was speaking as he emerged from a meeting with EU counterparts in Brussels.

He was clear the agreement didn’t involve combat troops; the EU of course doesn’t have an army.

The plans appear to stem from a request last year, by Ukraine, for help with “military education.”

The idea, I’m told, is that civilian and military advisors from member states may help with modernising the country’s military education sector in areas like logistics.

As you can perhaps tell, it sounds like a lot of the detail is yet to be worked out.

Image source, Reuters

We're hearing Defence Secretary Ben Wallace will give a statement to Parliament on the Ukraine crisis at 15:30 GMT this afternoon.

It's understood he'll also take questions from MPs in the Commons following repeated warnings from the West that a Russian invasion is imminent.

Stay with us for full coverage of that later.

Paul Adams
BBC diplomatic correspondent

Image source, AFP

It’s incredibly difficult to get a clear impression of who is firing at who, down in the contested areas of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine. This is where the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed separatists have been fighting since 2014.

International monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) talk of hundreds of ceasefire violations in their latest report, covering 17-18 February. Things have, if anything, escalated since then.

Their report speaks of impacts on both sides of the so-called “contact line”, which separates government-controlled territory from separatist-run areas. But there’s also a limit to what OSCE observers can see – they say that the armed rebels frequently deny them access.

The Ukrainian military says it will only return fire in “exceptional circumstances”, but it is reluctant to define this.

Government officials are also scrambling to keep up with what they describe as a torrent of fake news from the Russian-backed side. This morning a gruesome video which purported to show a child dismembered by a Ukrainian shell began circulating. An official accused separatists of taking corpses from morgues and blowing them up to stage this.

Another purported to show an alleged Ukrainian attack on a Russian border checkpoint. A Ukrainian official tells me that shells haven’t landed on Russian territory for the entire eight years of this war.

As we’ve been hearing, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says a Russian invasion of Ukraine appears "highly likely" - that’s despite US President Joe Biden tentatively agreeing to hold a crisis summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

The talks proposed by France will only take place if Russia does not invade its neighbour, the White House says.

But the prospect of those talks has done little to dampen fears an attack is imminent in Washington, with the White House saying the Kremlin is continuing to prepare a "full-scale assault on Ukraine very soon".

These latest satellite images show multiple new field deployments of armoured equipment and troops from Russian garrisons near the border with Ukraine.

Gordon Corera
BBC News Security correspondent

The US says it has "credible information" that Russian forces are creating lists of Ukrainians to be killed or sent to camps in the event of a military occupation.

Russia’s domestic security service, the FSB, is understood to be in charge of work by Moscow’s spy agencies to prepare the ground for an invasion and occupation.

The ‘5thService’ of the FSB has the lead on intelligence and influence operations within Ukraine including identifying people opposed to Moscow’s plans.

As well as going after identified individuals who oppose its actions, the US says it also has information that Russia plans to use lethal measures to disperse protests or peaceful acts of resistance if there is an occupation.

The warning is the latest salvo in Washington’s attempts to expose what it says are Moscow’s intentions for Ukraine and comes in a letter from Bathsheba Crocker, the US Ambassador to UN organisations in Geneva, to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The US did not provide further detail on the source of its information and the Kremlin has denied the claims as "fiction" and "fake".

Image source, Getty Images

Ukraine's top security official has welcomed the prospect of a summit between US President Joe Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin but warned that Kyiv must have an active role in any agreement reached by the pair.

"No one can resolve our issue without us," Oleksiy Danilov told a briefing. "Everything should happen with our participation."

Initial reports had suggested that Putin had agreed to meet with Biden to discuss the crisis in person.

But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that no "concrete plans" have been put in place and added that it is "premature to talk about any specific plans for organising any kind of summit".

The White House said earlier that any proposed summit was contingent on Russia refraining from invading its western neighbour.

Image source, Reuters

Thank you for joining us as we bring you the latest developments on the Ukraine crisis. Here are some of the biggest updates from today:

• France has proposed talks between the US and Russian leaders in a bid to find a diplomatic solution
• US President Joe Biden agreed “in principle”, but said discussions would only take place if Russia does not invade Ukraine. Russia, meanwhile, said there were no “concrete plans” for a Putin-Biden summit
• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected to speak to Putin later today in a further effort to ease tensions
• The efforts for diplomacy come as Russian forces remain stationed in positions encircling Ukraine, and civilians are evacuated from rebel-held areas in the east of the country
• The US has dismissed the evacuations as a cynical attempt to distract from the looming Russian invasion of Ukraine
• Washington also claims that Russia has a hit-list of Ukrainians "to be killed or sent to camps" in the event of an invasion - Moscow has dismissed this as an “absolute lie”
• Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says the UK and its allies are "stepping up preparations for the worst-case scenario"
• Several major European airlines have announced that they are either suspending or scaling back flights to Ukraine amid security concerns
• Putin is expected to hold a “large”, “extraordinary” meeting of the Russian Security Council later today

Image source, EPA

The UK and its allies are “stepping up preparations for the worst-case scenario” in Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says.

Truss made the comments in a tweet , externalfollowing talks with Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels.

“Diplomacy must be pursued but a Russian invasion of Ukraine looks highly likely,” she wrote.

“We must make the cost for Russia intolerably high.”

Russia has denied any plans to attack Ukraine, but has massed troops along the country’s borders.

Western officials have warned that Russia could launch an attack within days.

Image source, Getty Images

Ukraine's infrastructure minister has insisted that the country's airspace remains open, despite announcing that 10 airlines have adjusted scheduled flights amid growing tensions with Russia.

"The current cancellation of flights by a number of foreign airlines is dictated solely by the information aggravation of the situation, and not by real changes in flight safety," Oleksander Kubrakov told a news briefing.

He added that "the state is working to replace cancelled flights" and noted that the country's flag carrier, Ukraine International Airlines, has already opened ticket sales and increased the capacity of aircraft on additional flights from Kyiv to Munich and Geneva.

Several major European airlines have announced that they are either suspending or scaling back flights to Ukraine amid security concerns.

Germany's Lufthansa said it was halting flights to Ukraine from Monday, joining the Dutch carrier KLM, which already suspended flights.

Air France also announced on Monday that it was suspending flights scheduled to Kyiv on Tuesday, but noted that the move is a "precautionary measure" and that it will be "regularly re-evaluating the situation".

Carrie Davies
BBC Moscow Correspondent

Bundled in winter coats, exhausted after hours of travel, the evacuees sit in the buses that brought them from Ukraine’s border to the small Russian city of Taganrog.

They’ve made the journey from areas in Ukraine held by Russia-backed separatist rebels. On Friday, women, children and the elderly were told to leave, warned that Ukraine was planning an offensive. It’s a baseless claim that Ukraine and the West have strongly disputed. They fear that this is an attempt by Russia to create grounds to justify their own attack.

None on board seem to know where they will be taken next, many say they were reluctant to go, leaving behind fathers, husbands, brothers, who have not been allowed out but told they must stay to fight.

Some have been given temporary shelter in a sports hall, football nets pushed up against the wall to make way for lines of camp beds. Children play chase between the rows as their mothers try to settle.

Others have arrived at the train station. Here they are handed paperwork to fill out to get the 10,000 roubles, roughly £100, that President Putin has promised each evacuee.

Some are already angry; they’ve been told the train they are about to get on is going to Nizhny Novgorod, more than 1000km (621 miles) away. They worry that they will be too far from home, that they wouldn’t be sent so far if they were expected to come back soon.

The geopolitical wrangling continues, but their lives are in limbo.

Kremlin quashes fresh hopes of diplomatic solutionpublished at 10:38 Greenwich Mean Time 21 February 2022

10:38 GMT 21 February 2022

Steve Rosenberg
BBC Moscow Correspondent

For a short while, the flurry of telephone diplomacy had raised hopes for a negotiated resolution to this crisis.

Both the White House and France's Élysée Palace had indicated that a US-Russia summit had been agreed, in principle, conditional to no Russian military escalation in Ukraine.

But the Kremlin has poured cold water on such suggestions.

It says there are “no concrete plans” for Presidents Putin and Biden to meet. For now, diplomacy would continue on the level of foreign ministers, not heads of state.

The Kremlin also announced that today President Putin would chair an unscheduled meeting of Russia’s powerful security council. Tensions over Ukraine will almost certainly top the agenda.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Russia's emergencies minister has said that over 60,000 civilians have been evacuated from rebel held areas in eastern Ukraine into Russia.

Alexander Chupriyan said that some 61,000 people have now crossed the border into Russia, adding that nine trainloads of evacuees have been dispatched to other parts of Russia.

Chupriyan was speaking from Russia's Rostov oblast, which borders Ukraine, where he has been dispatched by President Vladimir Putin to establish a series of refugee camps.

Separatist leaders in the self-declared people's republics of Donetsk and Lugansk have announced plans to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people into Russia amid reports that men of fighting age in the regions are being mobilised.

The head of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, met with residents leaving on Friday, Russian news agencies reported.

"I hope it won't be for long," he was cited as saying. "But safety is paramount."

The US has dismissed the evacuations as a cynical attempt to distract from the looming Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russian troops remain massed around Ukrainepublished at 10:00 Greenwich Mean Time 21 February 2022

10:00 GMT 21 February 2022

Despite this morning's talk of more diplomacy, Russian forces remain stationed in positions encircling Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin has engaged in the largest military deployment in generations, with Moscow's troops stationed along the western border with Ukraine, as well as in the annexed Crimean Peninsula and in Belarus.

US officials told the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) last week that Moscow has deployed at least 160,000 troops "in and near Ukraine".

CBS News reported that the US has intelligence, external that Russian commanders on the ground have received orders to proceed with an invasion and are now making specific battle plans on how to attack.

The report claimed an invasion would begin with a cyber-assault followed by a campaign of missile and airstrikes, before ground units attempted to take the capital Kyiv.

Meanwhile, officials in Russia's close ally Belarus have announced that Moscow's troops will not leave the country at the conclusion of military drills as initially promised. The Belarusian border is about 140 miles from Kyiv.

On Sunday US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN that "everything we are seeing suggests that this is dead serious" and that "we are on the brink of an invasion".

Russia has insisted all along it has no plans to invade.

What to make of possible Biden-Putin talkspublished at 09:46 Greenwich Mean Time 21 February 2022

09:46 GMT 21 February 2022

James Landale
Diplomatic correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Could a summit between Presidents Biden and Putin be the “diplomatic off ramp” to resolve the crisis over Ukraine?

In theory, yes.

In the short term, it could potentially buy some time while the details of the meeting are hammered out. Both the US and the French have said it won’t happen if Russia were to invade Ukraine.

In the longer term, the summit could possibly lead to a bigger deal over European security. But - and there are many buts - will the summit even happen? There is no agreement yet on when and how and where it should be held.

Events on the ground in Ukraine might escalate out of control in the meantime. Either side could pull out. And even if the summit were to take place, is a deal possible when the positions of the US and Russia are so far apart?

What about the rest of Europe? Might they not want a seat at any summit designed to determine their security? And will they all support rewarding Mr Putin for his coercive diplomacy?

All these questions aside, the bottom line is that, for now, a diplomatic path remains open.

Image source, Getty Images

In further comments from the Kremlin, spokesman Dmitry Peskov has dismissed US intelligence reports that Russia has a hit list of Ukrainians to capture or kill after an invasion as an "absolute lie".

In a letter to UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, external, Washington's ambassador to the UN in Geneva wrote that Russian forces are creating lists of Ukrainians “to be killed or sent to camps following a military occupation”.

The US embassy in Moscow has also warned Americans, external of potential attacks in public places in Russia, saying they should have evacuation plans in place.

Peskov described the warning as “highly unusual”.

He told reporters the situation in eastern Ukraine remained "tense".

But while the Kremlin has denied having concrete plans in place for a summit between the US and Russian presidents, it did say it remained open to talks.

"There is an understanding that dialogue should be continued at the level of foreign ministers," Peskov said.

"If necessary, of course, the Russian and American presidents can decide to hold a telephone call or connect via other methods."

Image source, Getty Images

Thousands of Russian troops have been in Belarus taking part in military drills, and western analysts have warned that any invasion of Ukraine would likely be launched from the country.

The drills had been due to end on Sunday, but Belarus announced their extension in light of what it called increased military activity on its western border.

The Belarusian military now says their withdrawal will depend on the Western defence alliance Nato pulling back its forces from near Belarus and Russia, opening up the possibility that thousands of Moscow's troops could be stationed in the country for longer.

"The Russian Armed Forces' units will return to their permanent bases only when a objective need for that arises and when we decide," Belarusian army chief Viktor Gulevich said.

"In no small measure this will also depend on our Western counterparts. The forces and equipment deployed in the eastern European region, including near Belarus... are one of the factors that influence the development of the situation," he added.

Nato says there are up to 30,000 Russian troops in Belarus.

There are more lines coming in from the Kremlin, as we hear that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be holding a "large", "extraordinary" meeting of the Russian Security Council later today.

We'll be bringing you more details on this when we get them.

The Kremlin has said there are no "concrete plans" in place for a summit over Ukraine between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The summit has been proposed by France and agreed on in principle by Biden.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters it was "premature to talk about any specific plans for organising any kind of summit".

Jessica Parker
BBC Brussels correspondent

Image source, EPA

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says he "expects decisions" from the EU - as he called on the bloc to impose some sanctions against Russia now.

He was speaking as he arrived to meet with EU foreign affairs ministers in Brussels.

Kuleba said there were "good and legitimate reasons" to move ahead - and that the EU should demonstrate it's "not only talking the talk" but also "walking the walk".

He also welcomed the initiative to hold a potential summit between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We believe that every effort aimed at diplomatic solution is worth trying."

He said he'd been assured that no decisions would be taken about Ukraine behind its back.

Image source, Reuters

The European Union has thrown its support behind the efforts to arrange talks between Russia and the US.

As we have mentioned, the talks were proposed by France following phone calls between French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin. They have been agreed on “in principle” by the US, though the White House says they will only take place if Russia does not invade Ukraine.

"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," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters.

"We will support anything that can make diplomatic conversations the best way, the only way to look for a solution to the crisis," he said.

You can read more about what we know about the proposed talks here