ANKARA, February 12. /TASS/. Sources in Russia and Belarus have assured Ankara that there are no plans to invade Ukraine, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told CNN Turk on Saturday.

"Western media outlets reported earlier that Russia might invade at any given moment. The US says that a large-scale war may break out soon. The Russian and Belarusian sources with whom we talked denied that. We need to focus on easing tensions. Russia and NATO are in correspondence [on security guarantees]. It would be unreasonable to expect that all these issues would be resolved by a letter or two and it would be wrong for Russia to try to launch such an invasion while the process continues," he pointed out.

The West and Kiev have recently been echoing 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 claims and warned that attempts to use military force to resolve the crisis in southeastern Ukraine would have serious consequences.