The US has already begun sending troops to eastern Europe, with the first members of the 82nd Airborne Division landing in Poland. Meanwhile, the Joe Biden-led government also provided fresh military aid to Ukraine. Amid fears of a Russian invasion, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz have announced renewed diplomatic efforts, to stave off the possibility of a military confrontation.

The French president is slated to meet Putin in Moscow on Monday and then travel to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Scholz is slated to visit Kyiv on February 14 and travel to Moscow the day after. 

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These high-level visits come after Chinese President Xi Jinping showed support to Putin when the leaders met ahead of the Beijing Olympics on Friday. Presenting a united front against the NATO alliance, the leaders spoke of their relationship being unshakable. Further, they asked NATO to halt military expansion. 

Macron is still urging for diplomatic talks and has been in contact with Putin over call several times this week. However, France has also moved troops to Romania as part of the NATO response to Russia’s potential invasion. 

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Meanwhile, both Russia and US have engaged in a show of force, with the latter focusing on troop buildup. Russia, for its part, sent nuclear-capable planes to practice manoeuvres with the Belarusian air force. 

The escalation comes against the backdrop of the US accusing Russia of fabricating attacks by Ukrainian forces, as a pretext to invade the country. While these claims remain unsubstantiated, Jon Finer, the deputy National Security Adviser, spoke to NPR about similar Russian operations that were carried out before. 

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He said, “Russia has a long history of conducting operations like this where they will fabricate, essentially, some incident and then use that incident to justify military action that they wanted to take for wholly separate reasons”. 

Russia has long rubbished any plans of invasion and has constantly demanded that NATO countries block Ukraine’s entry into the bloc, and decrease military presence in eastern Europe.