LONDON, February 11. /TASS/. The leaders of the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, France, the European Commission and NATO agreed to double their diplomatic efforts aimed at settling the crisis around Ukraine, the office of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement on Friday.
"The leaders agreed that if President Putin deescalated, there was another way forward, and they pledged to redouble diplomatic efforts in the coming days," the document says.
At the same time, Johnson said he "feared for the security of Europe in the current circumstances."
"He impressed the need for NATO Allies to make it absolutely clear that there will be a heavy package of economic sanctions ready to go, should Russia make the devastating and destructive decision to invade Ukraine," the statement says.
The UK premier called upon other leaders "to work together to deliver economic and defensive support to Ukraine."
Concerns over Moscow’s alleged preparations for an invasion into Ukraine have been increasingly announced in the West and in Kiev recently. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov castigated these statements as an empty and groundless escalation of tension, emphasizing that Russia posed no threat to anyone. At the same time, the Kremlin press secretary did not exclude some possible provocations to justify such claims and warned that the attempts to resolve the Ukrainian conflict by force would carry extremely serious consequences.