Biden urges Americans to leave Ukraine as fears of Russian invasion mount

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Melbourne that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could before the January 20 end of the winter Olympics in China

Russian war games in Belarus, set to run until February 20, are the latest point of contention between Moscow and the West over Ukraine

US President Joe Biden urged Americans to leave Ukraine immediately, as his top diplomat said Friday that a Russian invasion could come "any time" -- including during the Winter Olympics, which end in nine days.

With Moscow continuing to amass tens of thousands of troops on the Ukraine border, and talks to avoid war making little headway, Biden issued a stark warning for US citizens to get out.

On the other side of the world in Melbourne, his Secretary of State Antony Blinken huddled with Asia-Pacific allies, stressing that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be days, or even hours away from launching a war in continental Europe.

"Simply put, we continue to see very troubling signs of Russian escalation," Blinken said.

Observers have described the gathering of Russian forces on three of Ukraine's flanks as the largest show of force since the Soviet Army marched on Berlin at the end of World War II.

On Thursday, Russia rolled its tanks across Belarus for live-fire drills. Washington has said that around 30,000 soldiers were involved, coming from locations that included Russia's Far East.

Kyiv condemned their presence as an "unprecedented" attempt to cut off Ukraine from both seas.

- 'Difficult talks' -

Russia is seeking written guarantees that NATO will withdraw its presence from eastern Europe and never expand into Ukraine.

"Difficult talks" between German, Russian, Ukrainian and French representatives broke late Thursday, with the quartet agreeing to meet again in March.

"We've made every possible effort to engage Russia," he said.

In Moscow, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss reported receiving promises from her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that the Kremlin had no plans to invade Ukraine.

But Lavrov said he was "disappointed" by the talks, saying the military drills and the movement of troops across Russia's own territory had spurred "incomprehensible alarm and quite strong emotions from our British counterparts and other Western representatives".

Scholz himself will travel to Kyiv and Moscow in the coming days for separate meetings with leaders -- including his first in-person meeting with Putin.

pmh-arb/ssy/ser

...