The Group of Seven (G7) warned Russia on Sunday of massive consequences and severe costs if President Vladimir Putin attacks Ukraine, according to a draft statement seen by Reuters.

US intelligence assesses that Russia could be planning a multi-front offensive on Ukraine as early as next year, involving up to 175,000 troops.

The Kremlin denies it plans to invade and says the West is gripped by Russophobia. Moscow says the expansion of Nato threatens Russia and has contravened assurances given to it as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

At a meeting in the northern English city Liverpool, the G7 delegates said they were united in their condemnation of Russia’s military build-up near Ukraine and they called on Moscow to de-escalate.

“Russia should be in no doubt that further military aggression against Ukraine would have massive consequences and severe cost,” the draft statement said, confirmed by G7 sources.

“We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of any sovereign state to determine its own future,” the draft said.

For Moscow, the growing Nato embrace of a neighbouring former Soviet republic — and what it sees as the nightmare possibility of alliance missiles in Ukraine targeted against Russia — is a “red line” it will not allow to be crossed.

Putin has demanded legally binding security guarantees that Nato will not expand further east or place its weapons close to Russian territory; Washington has repeatedly said no country can veto Ukraine’s Nato hopes.

The Kremlin said on Sunday that Putin told US President Joe Biden that Russian troops posed no threat and that Moscow was being demonised for moving troops around its own territory.