The Kremlin yesterday denounced US “peak hysteria” surrounding the Ukraine conflict but said Russian President Vladimir Putin and US leader Joe Biden had agreed to continue dialogue.

Efforts to defuse the crisis in Ukraine via a frenzy of telephone diplomacy failed to ease tensions, with US President Joe Biden warning that Russia faces “swift and severe costs” if its troops carry out an invasion.

Paris police said they arrested 97 people who defied a ban on a Canada-style protest convoy over coronavirus regulations to try block traffic in the capital, with 81 still in custody yesterday.

Some airlines have canceled or diverted flights to Ukraine amid warnings from the West that an invasion by Russia is imminent despite intensive weekend talks between Moscow and Washington.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to speak with his US and French counterparts yesterday after the United States warned that Moscow could invade Ukraine in days.

The Ukrainian government yesterday urged citizens to stay calm and united, saying the armed forces are ready to repel any attack on the country amid concern that Russia may be poised to invade.

Russia is now massing yet more troops near Ukraine and an invasion could come at any time, perhaps before the end of this month’s Winter Olympics, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday.

Australia officially listed koalas across a swathe of its eastern coast as “endangered” yesterday, with the marsupials fighting to survive the impact of bushfires, land-clearing, drought and disease.

The European parliament is preparing to launch a committee of inquiry into the Pegasus spyware scandal after evidence emerged of government critics in Poland and Hungary being targeted with the surveillance software.

French counter-terrorism forces based in west Africa killed ten suspected jihadists accused of involvement in a massacre of police officers in Burkina Faso last November, the French military announced on Thursday.

Russia ruled yesterday that US tech giant Google, which has come under mounting pressure from Moscow, broke the law by blocking and “non-transparently” deleting accounts on its YouTube video service.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday said that Western threats towards Moscow would do nothing to ease tensions over Ukraine as Russia and Belarus launched joint military drills.

Britain's Prince Charles has tested positive for Covid-19, his office said on Thursday, the second time that the heir-to-the-throne has contracted the disease.

Sweden scrapped almost all of its few pandemic restrictions on Wednesday (Feb 9) and stopped most testing for Covid-19, even as the pressure on the healthcare systems remained high and some scientists begged for more patience in fighting the disease.

The Kremlin yesterday said there were “positive signals” for the resolution of the Ukraine crisis following a meeting of the French and Ukrainian leaders in Kyiv.

Behind his latest outbursts against NATO and doomsday warnings to the West, there are tentative signs that Russian President Vladimir Putin is keen to avoid an escalation of the Ukraine crisis and seek some form of accommodation with the West.

Russia, facing the threat of Western penalties over Ukraine, and China on Monday spoke out against what they called “unilateral” sanctions imposed by countries without the backing of the United Nations Security Council.

Plastic has infiltrated all parts of the ocean and is now found “in the smallest plankton up to the largest whale” wildlife group WWF said yesterday, calling for urgent efforts to create an international treaty on plastics.

More than 100 Belgian police raided multiple addresses around the port city of Antwerp yesterday and detained 13 people suspected of links to a jihadist group.

French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday that after talks with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders he saw a path toward easing tensions.