In an extraordinary news conference with international journalists, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the West not to create panic, saying “Ukraine is not the Titanic.”

The Ukrainian President says warnings of an imminent invasion is putting Ukraine’s economy at risk.

It comes after a phone conversation with US President Joe Biden, who told his Ukrainian counterpart that he believes Russia could attack its neighbour next month.

Update: US President Joe Biden says he will send more US troops to Eastern Europe in the near term.

Russia, however, denies it is planning to invade and on Friday its foreign minister said Moscow did not want war.

Russia currently has about 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders, but Mr Zelensky says he doesn’t see a greater threat now than during a similar massing of troops last spring.

“There are signals even from respected leaders of states, they just say that tomorrow there will be war. This is panic – how much does it cost for our state?” he told the press conference in Kyiv.

The “destabilisation of the situation inside the country” was the biggest threat to Ukraine, he said.

Hawks in Biden Administration

It leads to the obvious question – why Ukraine is now pushing back against the United States, which is claiming that Ukraine is under threat from Moscow.

It’s a bizarre situation, with reports the call between Biden and Zelensky did not go well.

Analysts say the Biden administration is full of hawks who hark back to the Cold War.

US ignores Russia’s demands

The US has rejected a key Moscow demand that Nato rule out Ukraine joining the defence alliance – but insisted it was offering Russia a ” serious diplomatic path”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is accusing the West of ignoring Russia’s security concerns.

But he says he will study the US response before deciding what to do,.

France says the two leaders have agreed on the need to de-escalate and its President Emmanuel Macron told Mr Putin that Russia must respect the sovereignty of its neighbouring states.