Russia claims it has no immediate plans to attack Ukraine: 'Wars in Europe rarely start on a Wednesday'

• Russia denied a report that it plans to attack Ukraine soon, perhaps as soon as Wednesday.
• Russia's envoy to the EU told Die Welt: "Wars in Europe rarely start on a Wednesday."

Russia denied reports that it was planning to attack Ukraine imminently, telling the German newspaper Die Welt: "Wars in Europe rarely start on a Wednesday."

Russia's envoy to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, told Die Welt in an article published on Wednesday: "As far as Russia is concerned, I can assure you that there will be no attack this Wednesday."

"There will be no escalation in the coming week either, or in the week after that, or in the coming month."

It is not clear what day Chizhov made the comments to Die Welt, but it follows reports saying the US military had assessed that a Russian attack could come as early as Wednesday. The US and UK also warned on Monday that an invasion by Russia could happen in days.

Russia has repeatedly claimed that it had no plans to attack or invade Ukraine, but Western countries have been skeptical of those claims as Russia built up hundreds of thousands of troops on Ukraine's border.

Russia said on Tuesday that it was pulling back some troops from Ukraine's border, but did not say how many.

NATO said on Wednesday that Russia, on the contrary, appeared to be increasing its troop presence on the Ukrainian border. President Joe Biden also said Tuesday that the US had not been able to verify Russia's claim that it was withdrawing troops.

"The fact remains right now, Russia has more than 150,000 troops encircling Ukraine," Biden said. "An invasion remains distinctly possible."