MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. The United States stirs up hysteria around an invasion of Ukraine, which Russia is allegedly scheming, and pumps Kiev with weapons at the same time, Kremlin Aide Yury Ushakov told reporters on Saturday after a telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden.

"The facts are that Americans are artificially whipping up hysteria around an alleged Russian plans for the invasion, even providing the dates of such an invasion, but simultaneously boosts Ukraine’s military muscle, earmarking huge financial resources to modernize the Ukrainian army and increasing the number of military instructors being deployed there," he said.

"Conditions are being created for the Ukrainian armed forces to take provocative actions amid allegations about an ‘invasion.’ This is how we view the situation," he pointed out.

"Attempts have been going on for months to raise tensions around the movement of our troops on our territory. The situation reached the point of absurdity in the past several days," he noted.

The West and Kiev have recently been spreading allegations about Russia’s potential ‘invasion’ of Ukraine. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov castigated these claims as "empty and unfounded", serving as a ploy to escalate tensions, pointing out that Russia did not pose any threat whatsoever to anyone. However, Peskov did not rule out the possibility of provocations aimed at justifying such allegations and warned that attempts to use military force to resolve the crisis in southeastern Ukraine would have serious consequences.