Blinken: Russia can conquer Ukraine any moment

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said Russia continues to gather troops at the border with Ukraine and could start the invasion at any moment, including the period of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

He has said Washington continues to withdraw “the embassy staff from Kiev and has reiterated the American State Department's call for American citizens to leave this state immediately.

The former “simply, we continue to see vague signs of Russian escalation, including the arrival of new Russian forces on the Ukrainian border”, Blinken said at a conference in the Australian town of Melburn on February 11th.

“As we have said before, we can face invasion at any time, and to be clear, that includes the period of the Winter Olympics”.

Even the American president, Joe Biden, has called on all American citizens in Ukraine to leave this state immediately after increasing threats of Russian military action.

The U.S. citizens must leave now”, Biden said on Thursday NBC News.

We are facing one of the largest armies in the world. It's a very different situation and things can quickly escalate”.

Asked if there is a scenario that could push him to send military troops to rescue Americans, Biden said there is no.

It's a global war when Americans and Russians start shooting at each other. We're in a world quite different from what we've been at”.

Russia has repeatedly denied that it plans to invade Ukraine, despite having gathered more than 100,000 troops near the border.

Russia, meanwhile, has also launched massive military exercises with its neighbouring state, Belarus.