Moscow called on the West today to stop publishing what it called false allegations and threatening language about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Western powers of obstructing the course of resolving the crisis between Ukraine and Russia.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Western allegations that Moscow planned to launch an attack on Ukraine were false.

Zakharova added that the West should stop spreading false information and using threatening language.

And a call was made to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to stop spreading false information about Russia's intention to invade Ukraine, as she put it.

On the other hand, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba considered that Russia lost the round in its attempt to push countries to abandon his country;

Today, he said, Ukraine has become an integral part of the West, stressing that Washington informed Kiev about Russian plans to create pretexts to invade his country.


"fabrication scheme"

The US Departments of State and Defense had talked about intelligence information from Washington indicating that Russia was preparing to "fabricate a plan" that would give it a pretext to invade Ukraine by launching a fake attack attributed to the Ukrainian army against Russian sovereignty.

The United States and its allies say that Russia has massed about 100,000 soldiers, reinforced with armored vehicles and missiles, on the borders of Ukraine, in preparation for attacking the latter.

But Moscow denies this, and sees it as pure propaganda, and accuses the West - in return - of threatening its security by expanding eastward by seeking to include Ukraine in NATO.

And the Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, said that Washington had information that suggested that the Russians would seek to create a pretext for invading Ukraine, and that Russia would produce a propaganda video, including pictures of corpses and destroyed sites, in addition to military equipment that appeared to be Ukrainian or from among others. Those transferred by Western countries to Ukraine.


Russian and Chinese demands

Earlier on Friday, Russia and China demanded the West to respond positively to Moscow's demand for security guarantees, at the conclusion of a summit in Beijing that brought together Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

The summit focused on bilateral relations and the tension between Russia and the West, and the two sides issued a statement calling for a halt to the continued expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in reference to plans to include Ukraine and other countries in Eastern Europe to the alliance. They also called on NATO to retract what they described as cold war approaches.

In the same statement, China said that it understands and supports the proposals made by Russia on long-term security guarantees in Europe, and the two sides demanded Washington to respond positively to the Russian initiative, and abandon plans to deploy medium and short-range ground-based missiles in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe.

China and Russia criticized what they described as the negative US influence in the Asia-Pacific region, and said Washington's desire to deploy missiles in Asia and Europe increases security risks and undermines stability.

Obstructing the solution to the crisis

On the other hand, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today, Friday, that the West has so far not contributed to resolving the crisis between Russia and Ukraine, but rather is obstructing the process of resolving it.

Erdogan added - the day after his visit to Kiev - that US President Joe Biden has not yet shown a positive attitude regarding the crisis, and no results have been issued from the meeting between the US and Russian foreign ministers.

He pointed out that his country is ready to play the role of mediator and bear responsibility, according to the outcome of his upcoming meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Commenting on the Turkish president's statements, the Russian presidency said on Friday that there is no clarity yet on the Turkish mediation initiative for dialogue with Ukraine, nor on the timing of President Vladimir Putin's visit to Turkey.


diplomatic movement

Diplomatic contacts are intensifying at the highest levels in an attempt to prevent the current tensions from slipping into a military confrontation between Ukraine and Russia.

The French presidency announced that President Emmanuel Macron will visit Russia and Ukraine on Monday and Tuesday.

The Russian presidency (the Kremlin) announced that the Russian president had a telephone conversation - the third in a week - with his French counterpart, at the initiative of the French side, and the talks dealt with the security guarantees that Russia requested from the West.

For its part, the Russian RIA Novosti news agency said that Putin will hold talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on February 15.