The US and Russia offered two starkly different versions of the reality on the ground surrounding Ukraine on Thursday, with the Kremlin offering its most detailed accounting so far of what it has described as a partial troop withdrawal, while America and its Nato allies said the Russian threat continued to grow.

President Biden said that the possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine remained “very high”, and that he expected President Putin to carry it out within several days. “Every indication we have is they’re prepared to go into Ukraine,” he said.

But in brief remarks on Thursday morning outside the White House, Biden said he still believed a diplomatic resolution was possible, adding that “there is a path. There is a way through this”.

Secretary of defence Lloyd J. Austin III, who was joined by the head of Nato in Brussels, said Russia continued to move troops closer to Ukraine’s borders, was adding combat aircraft and was stocking up on blood supplies in anticipation of casualties on the battlefield.

“I was a soldier myself,” Austin said. “I know firsthand that you don’t do these sorts of things for no reason. And you certainly don’t do them if you’re getting ready to pack up and go home.”

The Russian defence ministry said on Thursday that troops had redeployed hundreds of miles away from the Ukrainian border areas after conducting military exercises.

The ministry’s spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said that logistics units of the western military district had travelled more than 400 miles from the Kursk region, bordering Ukraine, and returned to Dzerzhinsk in central Russia.

India flights

The civil aviation ministry has removed the curbs on the number of flights that can be operated between India and Ukraine under the bilateral air bubble arrangement, amid the tense situation in the eastern European nation, PTI reported on Thursday.

The cap on the number of seats that can be offered on flights has also been lifted. Civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Thursday said he would look into the issue of facilitating the safe return of Indian students from Ukraine.

New York Times News Service