MOSCOW, February 2./TASS/. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has expressed surprise at the analogies drawn by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who compared Russia to a fox in a henhouse, and Ukraine to chickens.

"Well, customarily Russia has always been compared to a bear. Even if it wanted to, it couldn’t climb onto the roof of a henhouse, because it is too big and heavy for this," Peskov told journalists on Wednesday when asked to comment on these comparisons from Blinken and Psaki.

"At the same time, figurative comparisons are not part of my functions," the spokesman admitted. Earlier, at a briefing Psaki drew an analogy, which was also used by US Secretary of State Blinken, comparing Russia with a fox on the roof of a henhouse, and Ukraine to the chickens.

"I mean, this is — you know, Secretary Blinken has used some of these analogies in the past, but when the fox is screaming from the top of the henhouse that he’s scared of the chickens, which is essentially what they’re doing, that fear isn’t reported as a statement of fact," Psaki told the briefing on Tuesday.

The West and Kiev have been echoing claims lately that Russia could invade Ukraine. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that these assertions were made to whip tensions in the region and that Russia didn’t threaten anyone. At the same time, he didn’t rule out provocations to back these Western statements and warned that the use of force to resolve the crisis in southeastern Ukraine would have serious consequences.