The EU is in talks over gas provision with the US and other countries amid concern that Russia will use its supply as a political tool, Ursula von der Leyen said.

Europe's gas storage is around 10 per cent less than usual for the time of year. Russia's Gazprom said it was fulfilling all long-term contracts, but has been accused by EU officials and the International Energy Agency of contributing to an undersupply to Europe amid the standoff over Ukraine.

Gas prices have soared to record levels in recent months amid factors including lower-than-expected imports from Russia, which supplies 40 per cent of EU gas.

Ms von Der Leyen, the EU commission president, said it was “strange” that Gazprom appeared uninterested in increasing gas supplies to Europe, despite record high prices and huge demand.

“There are increasing signs that the Kremlin is continuing to use gas supplies as a means of exerting political pressure,” she said.

The EU has begun looking elsewhere, she said.

“We are building a partnership for energy security with the United States, which is primarily about more LNG gas supplies. We are talking to other gas suppliers, for example Norway, about increasing their supplies to Europe,” she said.

Senior EU and US officials will meet in Washington today for talks on gas. EU talks are also ongoing with major gas producer Qatar, and Kadri Simson, the EU energy chief, visited Azerbaijan last week.

More words of defence from Russia over the West’s claims that it is poised to invade its neighbour Ukraine.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Western nations are ignoring Russia’s demands of security guarantees – such as the country’s wish that Ukraine never be allowed to join Nato.

He was asked by journalists whether it could be said that tensions in relations between Russia and the West were easing.

Mr Peskov said “tensions are still lingering” because “nothing new has been said in recent days concerning the security guarantees for Russia. Our Western colleagues prefer to avoid this topic.”

He added: “Instead of this topic, they prefer to discuss – in a greatly exaggerated manner – the problem of what they refer to as ‘Russia’s impending invasion of Ukraine.’

“So, in this respect, we can hardly speak about any lull whatsoever.”

Washington has so far refused to provide such guarantees, instead wishing to prioritise talks over strategic nuclear arms controls that Russia said will not happen until the Kremlin’s concerns about Ukraine and Nato are resolved.

The Kremlin is accusing the US and UK of fabricating falsehoods over the threat of Russia invading Ukraine to deflect from their own failures.

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, said Washington and London have “cooked up” the threat of a Russian invasion to carry out a provocation before declaring victory.

She wrote on her Telegram channel today: “The well-known psychedelic phobias by Western media about the ‘Russian aggression against Ukraine’ are under development in the forthcoming composition. However, time marches on and Russia is not attacking Ukraine.

“The calculation by the US who ordered this ‘tune’ and the British who joined the bandwagon is clear; they cooked up ‘the Russian threat’ themselves, they braced themselves for a ‘heroic fight’ against it, in order to commit a provocation and loudly declare their ‘victory’.”

“Here you’ve got both an opportunity to divert attention away from their own political crises and a chance to pour billions into arming ‘immature democracies,’ and a way of reviving the image of the ‘invincible’ after the Afghan fiasco,” she added.

It appears she is referring to the chaotic evacuation of people from Afghanistan in August last year, amid the Taliban’s takeover following the withdrawal of Western troops after 20 years of occupation.

Ms Zakharova stressed the Kremlin’s view that “the West is not concerned at all about Ukrainian interests”.

Israel has reportedly vowed to block the supply of its weapons to Ukraine via third-party countries.

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania had been granted the US’s approval to transfer US-made weapons to Ukraine to support Kiev ahead of a feared invasion by Russia.

But the Israeli defence ministry has informed the three Baltic nations that their request for the transfer of Israeli-made weapons “would be rejected,” Ukranian weekly newspaper Dzerkalo Tyzhnia has reported, citing website Breaking Defense.

It is suggested that this decision was influenced by Israel’s wish to maintain its diplomacy with Russia.

“The decision to ban was prompted by fears that Ukraine would seek to obtain Spike anti-tank systems, a joint German-Israeli production,” the report adds.

This information has not been confirmed by the defence ministries of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania – or Israel.

Russia has violated the ceasefire three times in the space of 24 hours, Ukraine’s ministry of defence has said.

In a post on the department’s website, it says Russian occupation forces have shelled the settlement of Vodiane – in Donetsk – using “man-portable antitank grenade launchers.”

Russian forces also “opened fire in the direction of Pisky using automatic grenade launchers,” it added.

No casualties have been reported.

The statement adds: “Ukrainian defenders opened fire in response, while refraining from the use of weapon systems prohibited by the Minsk agreements, and forced the adversary to cease the shelling.

Kiev said the third, and most recent, ceasefire violation was also in the Pisky vicinity – about seven miles (11km) away from Donetsk – that saw Russian occupation forces “shelling the positions of the Ukrainian defenders using small arms.”

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) said that it has shut down a group that mass-produced fake social media accounts for Russia, and confiscated the computer equipment.

Agents dismantled a group that helped Russia “disseminate destructive anti-Ukrainian content, including manipulative narratives, and carried out malign influence operations against our country” – the SSU said.

Two people in the Zhytomyr region – near Kiev – have been accused of using special Russian-made software that allows them to create social media accounts without using mobile communication services.

The security service said the group sold the accounts to Russian customers through “specialised internet platforms” with payment from “Russians paid to the offenders’ electronic wallets of non-banking payment systems banned in Ukraine.”

An investigation before a potential criminal trial is underway.

Militants trained by UK instructors have arrived in Donbass, in eastern Ukraine, according to Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

Kiev is forming assault teams of these militants, Eduard Basurin – deputy head of the DPR Militia told a briefing today.

The militants are from Right Sector, a far-right Ukranian nationalist group outlawed in Russia.

Mr Basurin said: “Two units consisting of militants from the Right Sector, each numbering 70 to 80 people, have arrived at the 54th separate mechanised and 56th separate mechanised infantry brigades.

“All militants have combat experience and were trained by British instructors.

“They are distributed among units of the 54th and 56th brigades that occupy positions in the first echelon, on the northern and western approaches to Donetsk.”

DPR’s intelligence also received information of Polish mercenaries that have arrived under the guise of instructors dispatched for training Ukrainian troops, he said.

Mr Basurin added that the mercenaries’ “goal is to conduct the special operations of selective guerilla and terror acts together with the units of Ukrainian forces, aimed at disabling vital and social infrastructure and intimidating the local population.”

Russia expects no “decisive breakthroughs” from today’s talks between Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron, the Kremlin said.

It comes after the French president flew to Moscow to talk about Russia’s ramping up of military activity near eastern Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a briefing that Mr Putin expects that the talks would be “very substantive” and that Mr Macron will reiterate his suggestions of how Russia can ease tensions with Ukraine.

But Mr Peskov said: “The situation is too complex to expect decisive breakthroughs in the course of one meeting.”

He said Moscow is awaiting news on the security guarantees that Mr Putin is requesting, adding: “Our Western interlocutors prefer not to mention this topic”.

Moscow denies planning an invasion of Ukraine but is seeking security guarantees – including a promise that Ukraine must never be allowed to join Nato.

Nato member countries have rejected that idea, but said it is willing to discuss other issues such as nuclear arms control.

However, Russia said that arms control discussions depend on whether its security guarantee demands are met.

A Tory MP has questioned whether foreign secretary Liz Truss’s planned trip to Moscow this week amid the Ukraine crisis would be “actually wise”.

Ms Truss has scheduled a trip to Russian capital to meet with her counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s The Westminster Hour programme, Conservative MP and former housing secretary Robert Jenrick said: “I’m not sure it is actually wise to go to Moscow.”

“I think that honours Vladimir Putin and plays into his hand... I just question the good sense of going to Moscow and honouring Vladimir Putin at a time when he is so aggressive towards Ukraine.

“I’m not sure that’s wise.”

Ms Truss’s visit to Russia would be the UK government’s first to the country since 2017, when Boris Johnson met with Mr Lavrov.

Liz Truss could visit Moscow this week, according to a report.

Moscow and London are discussing a possible visit by the UK foreign secretary on Thursday (10 February), the RIA news agency quoted Russia’s foreign ministry as saying.