Tense combating in Ukraine units off a diplomatic scramble.

As fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine mount, President Biden is about to talk with world allies on Friday afternoon about Moscow’s buildup of navy troops, in a continued effort to discourage any hostile advances on its neighbor.

Whereas the American chief has stated “there’s a path” to a diplomatic decision, Mr. Biden has additionally warned that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia may launch an invasion inside a number of days.

Washington and Moscow have been buying and selling conflicting accounts over whether or not Russian forces are actually pulling again from the Ukrainian border, with Russia insisting that it has no plans to invade and dismissing the American warnings as “data terrorism.” A heated trade of artillery hearth on Thursday between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian authorities forces, essentially the most intense in months, amplified the tensions.

The separatists claimed on Thursday that that they had come underneath hearth from Ukrainians, the kind of combating that Western officers have warned Moscow may attempt to use to justify navy motion. The Ukrainian navy stated that shelling at a kindergarten had wounded three grownup civilians.

The combating set off one other diplomatic scramble. A White Home official stated that Mr. Biden would host a telephone name with trans-Atlantic leaders in “continued efforts to pursue deterrence and diplomacy.” It’s unclear who will be a part of.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Thursday made an unscheduled journey to New York, the place he informed the United Nations Safety Council that Moscow gave the impression to be setting the stage for an assault. Mr. Blinken additionally accepted a proposal to satisfy with Russia’s international minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, late subsequent week.

A State Division spokesman, Ned Worth, didn’t present a time or place for the assembly, the diplomats’ second in two months, besides to say that it might not occur if Russia attacked Ukraine. “In the event that they do invade within the coming days, it should clarify they had been by no means severe about diplomacy,” Mr. Worth stated in a press release.

The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, additionally provided an ominous evaluation on Thursday. “The extreme focus of Ukrainian forces close to the contact line, along with potential provocations, can pose horrible hazard,” he stated.