WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (REUTERS) – Western leaders stepped up preparations for any Russian military action in Ukraine on Tuesday (Jan 25), with the United States focusing on how to protect energy supplies and Britain urging other European nations to get economic sanctions ready.

Tensions remained high after Nato said on Monday it was putting forces on standby and reinforcing eastern Europe with more ships and fighter jets in response to a Russian troop build-up near its border with Ukraine.

Russia, which denies planning an attack, said it was watching with “great concern”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated Moscow’s line that the crisis is being driven by US and Nato actions, not the Russian troop build-up.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a televised video address on Tuesday evening, urged his compatriots to stay calm and said work was under way to bring about a meeting between him and the leaders of Russia, Germany and France.

“There are no rose-coloured glasses, no childish illusions, everything is not simple.... But there is hope,” he said.

The US and the European Union have threatened economic sanctions if Russia launches an invasion and Western leaders say unity is paramount, though differences have emerged among European nations over how best to respond.

“It is absolutely vital that... the West is united now, because it is our unity now that will be much more effective in deterring any Russian aggression,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told parliament, urging “our European friends” to be ready to deploy sanctions as soon as there was any incursion.

He said Britain was discussing the possibility of banning Russia from the Swift global payments system with the US, one of many potential measures to punish Moscow if it launches an offensive.

In Washington, senior Biden administration officials said the US was in talks with major energy-producing countries and companies around the world over a potential diversion of supplies to Europe if Russia invades Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters on a call, the officials did not name the countries or companies involved in discussions to protect supplies to Europe but said they included a broad range of suppliers, including sellers of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

“We’ve been working to identify additional volumes of non- Russian natural gas from various areas of the world; from North Africa and the Middle East to Asia and the United States,” a senior administration official said, on condition of anonymity.

The EU depends on Russia for around a third of its gas supplies. Any interruptions to its Russian imports would exacerbate an existing energy crisis caused by shortages.

Military moves

Russia has tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine and is demanding security guarantees from the West, including a promise by Nato never to admit Ukraine. Moscow sees the former Soviet republic as a buffer between Russia and Nato countries.

French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in Berlin on Tuesday, said he would seek clarification over Russia’s intentions towards Ukraine in a phone call with President Vladimir Putin set for Friday.

Macron and Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz reiterated that Moscow would pay a high price if it attacked Ukraine.

Political advisers from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France are due to meet in Paris on Wednesday under the so-called ‘Normandy format’ to seek ways of ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine between Kyiv’s forces and pro-Russian separatists.

Scholz defended Germany’s refusal to follow other Western countries in sending Kyiv lethal weapons to defend itself against a possible Russian invasion, citing historical reasons for Berlin’s caution.

The tensions over Ukraine have been felt on financial markets and the price of oil in recent days. An escalated conflict between Russia and Ukraine would be likely to further increase energy costs for many countries, keeping headline inflation rates elevated for longer, said Gita Gopinath, first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

The US has committed more than US$650 million (S$870 million) of security assistance to Ukraine in the past year and more than US$2.7 billion in total since 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.

A US plane carrying military equipment and munitions landed in Kyiv on Tuesday, the third shipment of a US$200 million security package to shore up Ukraine.

The US Department of Defence said on Monday about 8,500 US troops had been put on heightened alert and were awaiting orders to deploy to the region, should Russia invade Ukraine.

However, the White House reiterated on Tuesday that there were no plans to send US troops to Ukraine, which is not a Nato member.

So far, Nato has about 4,000 troops in multinational battalions in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland, backed by tanks, air defences and intelligence and surveillance units